NBCUniversal Plans More Olympic Firsts

US media network NBCUniversal (NBCU) has partnered with Google and comScore to explore new ways to measure single source consumption of video content on TV, PCs and mobiles / tablets during the 2012 London Olympics.

NBCU previously worked on a series of research initiatives during theBeijing and Vancouver Olympics, known as 'The Billion Dollar Lab'.

The group's third Olympics initiative will combine Google's analytical and digital expertise with its own experience of using the Olympics to explore consumer media behavior, while comScore will measure how different demographic groups use media to follow the games.

Single source data measures the use of different devices by an individual consumer across multiple channels, online services and apps. In order to achieve this, Google will liaise with a panel of approximately 3,000 respondents who have agreed to participate, while also utilizing a number of proprietary algorithms it has developed specifically for this project.

For its part in the initiative, comScore will tap into NBCU's new 10,000-member single source TV/online panel to focus on several hundred Olympic enthusiasts who plan to follow the games on multiple platforms. The firm will also use set-top-boxes, electronic meters and panelist self-reports to provide new insights into how today's media platforms contribute to the Olympic experience for fans.

Alan Wurtzel, NBCU's President of Research, comments: 'Since we first began the Olympics Billion Dollar Lab, non-linear video consumption has increased dramatically. Cross-platform measurement is extraordinarily challenging, but we believe the unique and complementary nature of these research projects will bring us one step closer to cracking the code of single source measurement.'

The firms intend to share both the results regarding consumer Olympic media consumption and their broader learnings about various possible approaches to cross platform measurement. Other research partnerships will be announced by NBCU in the coming weeks.

Web sites: www.nbcuni.com , www.google.com and www.comscore.com .