Measuring viewer engagement with television is one of my favorite topics, partly because it’s messy, and partly because it’s a sign that something really needs to change to make the economics behind the television ecosystem sustainable. So, on Friday, when Optimedia U.S. released their third annual study, Content Power Ratings 2.0, that assesses how engaged people are with television shows, I knew I had to write something about the topic.
Although I think this type of thing is a step in the right direction when it comes to assessing the appeal of a program, I can’t help but wonder if we’re really measuring the right things. Maybe people are “engaging” with these shows, but are they actually advocating and/or buying the brands that advertise on them more than the non-engaged viewers?
If that’s the real question we need to answer, then we might be measuring media engagement backwards.
