Media measurement is rapidly evolving to help marketers get a better idea of how they’re reaching television viewers across multiple platforms. Those media outlets including traditional linear television and newer streaming services that exploded in popularity during the pandemic.
“All the disruption that’s happened in media consumption over the last decade — and only accelerated during the pandemic — is now being counted,” Ashwin Navin, co-founder and chief executive of Samba TV, said in this interview with Beet.TV.
Focusing on Measurement After MiQ Deal
Samba TV this month announced a couple of agreements with partner companies that will help to advance its goal of providing comprehensive insights and audience analytics. The first was with programmatic media company MiQ, which will take over Samba TV’s managed media services business.
“With MiQ, we found a great partner, a company that was very focused on providing a managed service to marketers that bundles data from us, inventory from a variety of sources, and delivers performance-based outcomes for marketers on top of a programmatic infrastructure,” Navin said.
As a result of the deal with MiQ, Samba will be more focused on its measurement and data analytics services.
“We are now a pure measurement and data company and that makes us a better partner to both the buy side and the sell side of the marketplace,” Navin said. “We’re not conflicted, we’re not trying to compete with our customers and trying to steal budgets or participate in those budgets. We want everyone to transact more efficiently and to be able to rely on our measurement capabilities to do so.”
Artificial Intelligence and TCL
Samba this month also formed a multi-year research and development venture with consumer electronics company TCL. The collaboration aims to develop and deploy advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and content analytics to TCL TVs and make features of Samba AI, a suite of advanced AI and machine learning (ML) technologies, available worldwide.
Viewers with a TCL television will be able to see more detailed information about the shows they’re watching, among other features.
“You can pause it and it’ll tell you what actors are on screen, potentially what products and brands are on screen,” Navin said. “It will also even allow you to use a camera built-in your TV to control your television. So this is an entirely new TV technology that we’ve invented.”
