Rakuten Tv si prepara per la misurazione dell’audience in Italia dal 2027

Dal 2027 Rakuten TV might start measuring its audience in Italy, joining the United Kingdom where it adhered to the Barb measurement. Rakuten TV CEO Cédric Dufour confirmed this to Sole 24 Ore at the Mipcom 2023, where the company announced its international expansion of Fast services for businesses. The move to measurement is crucial for competing in the advertising market, as clients demand verifiable data and want to know the return on their investment.

Dufour is confident that measurement will be implemented in Italy in 2027, as verified data and results of campaigns are essential for ad buyers.

The company is expanding its Fast channels in the United States, Middle East, and Japan, offering technology, infrastructure, and services to platforms and content owners. In the United States, Rakuten TV Comedy and Action channels are already available on TCLtv+. In the Middle East, Rakuten TV Top Movies and Action channels will launch on TCLtv+ and TCL Channel, as well as LG Channels by the end of the year.

For Japan, Rakuten TV Enterprise is chosen as a technical partner to distribute Fast channels on R Channels, leveraging the company's experience in Europe. Rakuten TV currently manages over 500 Fast channels in 43 countries and has created more than 120 content owners in Europe, reaching more than 150 million households through apps and buttons on televisions.

Dufour believes that the international expansion will complement the European growth, which is also fueled by the shift of younger audiences from traditional TV to connected TV. The profitability of the sector will eventually be proven through amortizing costs and reaching break-even. Programming can also be continually corrected, with channels replaced when they are not functioning properly, which further emphasizes the importance of audience measurement for selling advertising and understanding the performance of content and channels.