Case

Program Monitor – an award-winning BI solution for TV 2 Norway

By analysing and interpreting Big Data, TV 2 is able to gain an insight into viewers’ thoughts and opinions. This increases the ability to create hit TV concepts.

The challenge

Our television-viewing habits have changed. From being tied to a given broadcast time, we now have endless opportunities to control our own viewing. We now choose for ourselves when we want to watch the programmes that interest us. We buy the channels and programmes that grab our attention. We watch online – via computer, mobile phone or tablet.

Today, our demands are entirely different in comparison to the past. Today, we choose with care.

Therefore, as a media producer, it is now necessary to know one’s audience. Which programmes do they like and which do they dislike? The challenge facing TV 2 was to learn what their audience thinks about their programmes in order to create even better television and meet the demands of their customers. And, with over a million followers of their programmes on social media, there were important opinions and thoughts to be learnt.

Two screens displaying the Program Monitor application

The solution

In collaboration with ID Management, Knowit developed the Program Monitor solution; a service that collects information from social media which is then integrated and analysed together with data from internal sources and automated media metrics. During the development of Program Monitor, complex algorithms were created to handle data and interpret it correctly. By identifying and analysing the factors that influence what people consider to be good, bad, upsetting or emotionally-engaging television, it is possible to build up a library of words and terms that are reflected in these factors.

Data is continuously gathered and visually presented for end users – primarily editors working on concept and programme development at TV 2. The results are displayed on a monitor making it possible to see and analyse viewer opinion on an entire or selected parts of a programme, all the way down to microlevel.

They can also see which programmes are being broadcast simultaneously on rival channels, allowing analysis of their viewers’ behaviour. Also presented is traceability around opinions expressed by other media regarding the programme.

From Big Data to concrete results.

The result

Using Program Monitor, TV 2 Norway can react much more swiftly and make decisions on programmes and channels based on how they are received by the audience. The viewer then becomes the starting point for the strategic creation of new concepts, channels and programmes – increasing the chances of making well-founded decisions and successful investments.

Program Monitor is an excellent example of Big Data being used to make concrete decisions that increase business value and create new opportunities. Today, there is an endless amount of data at our fingertips; however, it is important that the quality of data is high. Large amounts of data must be sifted and evaluated.

In addition, data seldom stands in isolation but has important correlations with other data.
“This is a very good example of how it is possible to obtain great value when one interprets and analyses Big Data. We have developed this as a cloud service and already have plans for how we can assist other clients with similar needs,” says Ingvar Larsson at Knowit Decision in Norway.

Program Monitor was awarded the Norwegian Computer Society’s BI Innovation Prize 2015.

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