Ipsos Swedish Study Hopes to Revolutionise TV Panels

Ipsos Connect and Swedish firm MMS have partnered on a project to evaluate whether new TV technologies can boost TV panel sizes within existing budgets.

Recently formed Ipsos Connect will join the television research specialist over the next few months in building a TV household panel in Sweden, to test whether using mobile devices to replace traditional peoplemeters could 'significantly increase' TV panel size without incurring additional costs.

Ipsos' electronic TV and radio audience measurement service - the MediaCell Peoplemeter mobile tablet - will be provided to households to replicate the functionality of a traditional peoplemeter. This device uses a combination of audio fingerprinting and audio watermarking to establish what is being watched. Panellists can also use the tablet's touchscreen to register their presence in the room, or a remote control handset with buttons allocated to each household member can be used to record which individuals are watching.

Trials will run throughout May-July 2015 and include nine TV channels. MMS VP Pirjo Svedberg (pictured) comments: 'If this project meets our exacting requirements then this could be very exciting and have great potential. We are also looking to potentially monitor viewing in summer houses over the holiday season'.

Web sites: www.ipsos.com and www.mms.se .