FLO TV might not be willing to tell exactly how big its audience is, but it will sell second-by-second viewership data of its subscribers to get advertisers on board. The multicast mobile television service, a wholly owned subsidiary of Qualcomm (NASDAQ:QCOM), today announced it has partnered with digital audience measurement company Rentrak (NASDAQ:RENT) to provide comprehensive standard viewership and impression reporting for Qualcomm’s FLO TV live mobile TV service.
Using Rentrak’s TV Essentials media measurement system, the companies will offer ongoing reports giving deeper insight into mobile TV viewing patterns as currency for advertising sales. A lack of reliable metrics is one of the biggest hurtles holding back mobile advertisers, so the hope is that verifiable viewership data will encourage content providers and advertisers to buy spots on mobile phones.
The companies said they are in the process of integrating the service and plan to share impression data with Qualcomm’s programming partners, which include CBS, ESPN, FOX and NBC, later this year. Early reports have indicated the average daily viewer spends more than 30 minutes watching FLO TV with usage peaks between 1 and 2 p.m. Special live news coverage and live sports continue to garner the most viewers, epitomized by the Michael Jackson Memorial, the most-viewed event in FLO TV history with average viewing time of 49 minutes.
Qualcomm’s FLO TV service is currently offered by both AT&T and Verizon and will eventually come as a direct-to-consumer package as a part of a larger consumer strategy. At CES, Qualcomm announced a partnership with Audiovox to provide in-car FLO receivers through auto dealers and other retailers. And at CTIA, it followed up with a demo of an add-on peripheral capable of picking up a FLO TV signal and distributing it to media devices via WiFi. The service, which includes 20 full–length simulcast and time-shifted programming, was rebranded as FLO TV from MediaFLO when CEO Bill Stone took over the helm earlier this year.
Qualcomm’s goal is to complete a nationwide footprint covering 200 million people and the top 100 markets by the end of 2009. It is currently live in 84 markets. A FLO TV spokeswoman said that the company cannot reveal its subscriber base because of its contracts with AT&T and Verizon, but it will divulge numbers once it launches Audiovox and makes its way to other platforms.