New app offers users $11 to track smartphone video activity

VideoPulse, a new app by data collection startup Symphony Advanced Media, is offering its users $11 a month to track and report everything they watch.

 

How does it work?

The app has a passive listening program that hears what users are listening to, tracks it, and sends on any data. It’s free to sign up. Users must answer a series of questions such as age and gender, and wait for their application to be approved.

Once approved, users just have to keep the app running in the background on their smartphone at all times.

Users who use the app will be paid between $5 to $11 a month and can expect just about anything they watch to be tracked, along with other data including their location. 

 

What’s the idea behind it?

The app aims to properly measure who is watching video. A diverse set of users are being recruited in an effort to create a diverse group that can then be counted on to provide data on a wide variety of demographics.

 

What are people saying about it?

“There has been a significant void in understanding how consumers are using non-traditional media platforms, but innovation has finally arrived in the media measurement space,” said Charles Buchwalter, CEO of Symphony Advanced Media.

“Our industry has been disadvantaged by legacy measurement approaches that have failed to evolve with consumers’ increasing use of media platforms,” said Liz Huszarik, who leads media research at Warner Bros. “We are hopeful that by working with Symphony Advanced Media’s VideoPulse that we can capture an accurate picture of consumers’ total TV/video usage across platforms and devices, with a transparency that’s been missing from other vendors.”

 

What has it found so far?

VideoPulse’s data has already produced some insights including:

Measurement Difficulties: “Millennial TV viewership is said to have declined nearly 30 percent in the last five years since current research methods primarily include traditional viewing. Symphony Advanced Media’s research indicates that 25 percent of TV viewership is non-traditional viewing, so when including viewing beyond Live+7 and on OTT, the gap from the presumed loss of millennials’ viewing of traditional TV is nearly filled.”

Streaming Methods: “Different demographic groups use different methods for time shifting television and watching it when and where they want. Within non-live viewing, Netflix accounts for 3.5 times more viewing time among 18-34-year-olds while DVR is three times larger than Netflix among 35-49-year-olds.”

Binge Viewing’s Impact: “Introducing a whole season’s episodes at once to promote binge viewing is a powerful new method of launching a television program. Netflix’s launch of Orange Is The New Black’s third season this past June reduced viewing of traditional television nearly 20 percent in the first week among viewers of the program.”