Singapore Introduces Cross-Screen Measurement

Singapore has introduced Asia’s first integrated system for measuring viewership across TV and digital devices.

Operated by GfK and commissioned by the IMDA, the Singapore TV Audience Measurement (SG-TAM) has been tracking TV and digital viewership separately since 2016. The upgraded system promises to now include unduplicated TV viewership figures across digital devices such as smartphones, tablets and PCs. The data will be accessible to subscribers of SG-TAM within three working days of a show’s scheduled telecast on a linear platform.

“SG-TAM is a great resource for content production and strategy, as well as targeted marketing,” said Howie Lau, chief industry development officer at IMDA. “We welcome more content players, from international broadcasters to OTT players and online content owners, to come on board and benefit from the insights the system can provide. At the same time, Singapore audiences can look forward to quality shows as we grow to better understand their viewing preferences.”

Lee Risk, AsiaPac commercial director for media at GfK, added, “This marks a real milestone for the Singapore video market, especially since viewing media content on smartphones has increased from 23 to 32 minutes per day between January and November 2018 alone.”

Mediacorp will use the upgraded SG TAM across its portfolio of services. The IMDA is currently in discussions with other broadcasters and online content owners to use SG-TAM.

Irene Lim, chief customer officer at Mediacorp, said, “Today, our viewers consume media using a wide range of devices. With SG-TAM’s enhanced integrated data, we are now able to capture and measure the full viewership lifecycle of our TV content for audiences across different screens. Unified, single-source insights around live and on-demand TV viewing habits will help us make more informed content and programming decisions.”