NBCU Plans Cross-Platform Olympics Study

Continuing its research efforts surrounding the Beijing and Vancouver Olympics known as “The Billion Dollar Lab,” NBCUniversal will conduct a third Olympics research initiative during the 2012 London Games. The company said it will work with Google and comScore for a series of innovative research projects that will “explore new ways to measure single-source consumption of video content on TV, mobile, the PC, and for the first time in this Olympics, the tablet.”

The initiative will combine Google’s analytical and digital expertise with NBCUniversal’s extensive experience using the Olympics to explore consumer media behavior. NBCUniversal and comScore will also partner on a project to measure how different demographic groups use media to follow the games.

Alan Wurtzel, president, Research, NBCUniversal, said: “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.”

Considered the “holy grail” of media measurement, 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, the Google project will feature a panel of approximately 3,000 respondents. The project will also use a number of proprietary algorithms developed specifically for the project by Google.

The comScore initiative will tap into the company’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. It will employ 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 the biggest fans.”

NBCUniversal, Google, and comScore intend to share both the results of consumer Olympic media consumption, as well as the broader knowledge obtained about the various approaches to cross-platform measurement. In coming weeks, NBCUniversal will announce other research partnerships for the Billion Dollar Lab.