Introducing Telemetrics 
Darryl Woodford, Katie Prowd, Axel Bruns, Ben 
Goldsmith, Stephen Harrington, Jean Burgess 
Queensland University of Technology 
Association of Internet Researchers Conference 
(IR15) 
Daegu, South Korea 
24 October 2014
INTRODUCTION 
• The State of Play 
• From Sabermetric to Telemetrics 
• Social Media Audiences & Australian Telemetrics 
• The HypometerTM for industry metrics 
• The Big Brother HypometerTM
NIELSEN SOCIALGUIDE TWITTER RATINGS
NIELSEN SOCIALGUIDE TWITTER RATINGS 
Cable 
Channel vs 
Major 
Network?
NIELSEN SOCIALGUIDE TWITTER RATINGS 
Cable 
Channel vs 
Major 
Network? 
Why is 
having more 
followers the 
important 
statistic? 
(Follower 
counts are 
problematic)
BUT ALSO 
Cable 
Channel vs 
Major 
Network? 
Why is 
having more 
followers the 
important 
statistic? 
(Follower 
counts are 
problematic) 
2.5 hour 
special 
1 hour 
show
AND YOU NEED TO GET IT RIGHT 
Beamly Screenshot: 31 May 2014
AND YOU NEED TO GET IT RIGHT 
Beamly Screenshot: 31 May 2014
BIG BROTHER USA VS AU (AUDIENCE) 
• In US, for Big Brother (& 
shows generally), there is little 
correlation between viewers 
and tweets. 
• In Australia, for Big Brother 
and other shows in our one-week 
pilots, high correlation 
between viewer count and 
tweets. 
• Highlights that applying US 
models to Australia is not 
possible
SABERMETRICS
BASIC VS ADVANCED METRICS 
• From ERA to xERA: Includes factors under pitchers control (hits, walks 
etc) other than Earned Runs.. 
• From xERA to FIP: Accounts for the shortcoming of fielders beyond a 
scorers adjudication of errors. 
• Replacement Value: Just as a ‘free agent’ in baseball has some minimal 
level of performance, anything shown at 8pm on CBS or Nine will get 
*some* viewers.. Ratings shouldn’t start at 0 (unless it’s a Houston Astros 
game) 
• Essentially, we shouldn’t just take the raw numbers..
THREE KEY METRICS 
• Weighted Tweet Index - Measured Engagement with a broadcast through 
social media within the context of country, network & programming slot 
• Excitement Index - Measures ‘excitement’ across the audience base 
through social media, without regard to volume, at different levels of 
granularity (per episode, per segment, per minute etc) 
• Hype Score - Measures engagement between episodes through social 
media within the context of country, network, etc..
SEASONAL MODELS • Blue Line represents the 
ratio of total viewers, 
Orange Line represents ratio 
of tweets (to season average 
per show). 
• In both one run seasons 
(top) and those with mid-season 
break (bottom), 
tweets are highly 
exaggerated version of 
traditional ratings model. 
• In other words: Users tweet 
much more around 
premieres & finales than 
regular shows. Metrics must 
account for this.
EXCITEMENT INDEX
EXCITEMENT INDEX
INDUSTRY RESISTANCE 
• Across entertainment industries in general, appears to be a resistance to 
‘Big Data’ - e.g. HalfBrick (Banks & Woodford, 2013) 
• Whether game designers, network executives or Hollywood decision 
makers, ‘artistic vision’ seems dominant when deciding which game to 
make, which pilot to pick up, which movie to dedicate millions to marketing. 
• Clear parallels to sabermetric movement in US sports -- Moneyball etc. 
• “Facts that challenge basic assumptions—and thereby threaten people's 
livelihood and self-esteem—are simply not absorbed. The mind does not 
digest them. This is particularly true of statistical studies of performance, 
which provide base-rate information that people generally ignore when it 
clashes with their personal impressions from experience.” (Kahneman, 
2011)
HYPE IN THE LITERATURE 
• “At four weeks out, trailer search volume on Google coupled with both 
the franchise status of the movie and seasonality can predict opening 
weekend box office revenue with 94% accuracy.” (“Quantifying Movie 
Magic with Google Search”, 2012) 
• “[S]ome reality programmes are engaged in the intentional production of 
a perfume of scandal and controversy” (Biltereyst, 2004 , p. 123). 
Similar pattern with UK, Australian & US Reality shows (c.f. Woodford & 
Prowd, 2014) 
• “[E]x ante analysis can produce reasonable estimates that allow studios 
to decide whether to commit additional financing and make appropriate 
adjustments to marketing promotions to try and induce greater gross 
upon release” (Kaplan, 2012, p. 1)
THE IMPORTANCE OF HYPE 
• Traditional ratings measure 
what people have watched, but 
have limited impact on what 
people *will* watch. 
• That is, they are divorced from 
the “decision moment”. 
• Yet, companies spend millions 
promoting shows and 
attempting to influence viewer 
behaviour, both through TV 
ads and through social media. 
• How do we measure that?
HYPE ALSO ALLOWS PREDICTIONS 
• Hype is a significant input to a 
prediction algorithm for social 
media conversation. 
• By including hype, and 
applying other weightings to 
raw social media statistics, it’s 
possible to significantly 
improve predictions vs. a 
rolling average of previous 
shows. 
• Yet, this information still 
appears to be widely ignored.
THE HYPOMETERTM 
• iOS app developed as functional prototype 
to act as a ‘modern TV Guide’ for Australian 
television 
• Calculates ‘hype’ via a proprietary algorithm 
which accounts for national and industry 
context 
• Ongoing evaluation of both hype figures and 
predictions vs. post-show TV ratings and 
social media engagement. 
• Clear trend towards ‘dynamic’ audiences; a 
proportion of the population on whom 
broadcasters should focus.
THE BIG BROTHER HYPOMETER TM 
• Social media as a predictive 
tool for reality TV 
• Social media mentions closely 
match results of in-show voting: 
e.g. Lawson & Aisha 51.8% in 
public vote, separated by a few 
hundred interactions. 
• Twitter mentions of ‘track’ & 
housemate name closely 
mirrored early evictions. 
• Analysis continues: see 
TheConversation.com
Questions?

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Introducing telemetrics

  • 1. Introducing Telemetrics Darryl Woodford, Katie Prowd, Axel Bruns, Ben Goldsmith, Stephen Harrington, Jean Burgess Queensland University of Technology Association of Internet Researchers Conference (IR15) Daegu, South Korea 24 October 2014
  • 2. INTRODUCTION • The State of Play • From Sabermetric to Telemetrics • Social Media Audiences & Australian Telemetrics • The HypometerTM for industry metrics • The Big Brother HypometerTM
  • 4. NIELSEN SOCIALGUIDE TWITTER RATINGS Cable Channel vs Major Network?
  • 5. NIELSEN SOCIALGUIDE TWITTER RATINGS Cable Channel vs Major Network? Why is having more followers the important statistic? (Follower counts are problematic)
  • 6. BUT ALSO Cable Channel vs Major Network? Why is having more followers the important statistic? (Follower counts are problematic) 2.5 hour special 1 hour show
  • 7. AND YOU NEED TO GET IT RIGHT Beamly Screenshot: 31 May 2014
  • 8. AND YOU NEED TO GET IT RIGHT Beamly Screenshot: 31 May 2014
  • 9. BIG BROTHER USA VS AU (AUDIENCE) • In US, for Big Brother (& shows generally), there is little correlation between viewers and tweets. • In Australia, for Big Brother and other shows in our one-week pilots, high correlation between viewer count and tweets. • Highlights that applying US models to Australia is not possible
  • 11. BASIC VS ADVANCED METRICS • From ERA to xERA: Includes factors under pitchers control (hits, walks etc) other than Earned Runs.. • From xERA to FIP: Accounts for the shortcoming of fielders beyond a scorers adjudication of errors. • Replacement Value: Just as a ‘free agent’ in baseball has some minimal level of performance, anything shown at 8pm on CBS or Nine will get *some* viewers.. Ratings shouldn’t start at 0 (unless it’s a Houston Astros game) • Essentially, we shouldn’t just take the raw numbers..
  • 12. THREE KEY METRICS • Weighted Tweet Index - Measured Engagement with a broadcast through social media within the context of country, network & programming slot • Excitement Index - Measures ‘excitement’ across the audience base through social media, without regard to volume, at different levels of granularity (per episode, per segment, per minute etc) • Hype Score - Measures engagement between episodes through social media within the context of country, network, etc..
  • 13. SEASONAL MODELS • Blue Line represents the ratio of total viewers, Orange Line represents ratio of tweets (to season average per show). • In both one run seasons (top) and those with mid-season break (bottom), tweets are highly exaggerated version of traditional ratings model. • In other words: Users tweet much more around premieres & finales than regular shows. Metrics must account for this.
  • 16. INDUSTRY RESISTANCE • Across entertainment industries in general, appears to be a resistance to ‘Big Data’ - e.g. HalfBrick (Banks & Woodford, 2013) • Whether game designers, network executives or Hollywood decision makers, ‘artistic vision’ seems dominant when deciding which game to make, which pilot to pick up, which movie to dedicate millions to marketing. • Clear parallels to sabermetric movement in US sports -- Moneyball etc. • “Facts that challenge basic assumptions—and thereby threaten people's livelihood and self-esteem—are simply not absorbed. The mind does not digest them. This is particularly true of statistical studies of performance, which provide base-rate information that people generally ignore when it clashes with their personal impressions from experience.” (Kahneman, 2011)
  • 17. HYPE IN THE LITERATURE • “At four weeks out, trailer search volume on Google coupled with both the franchise status of the movie and seasonality can predict opening weekend box office revenue with 94% accuracy.” (“Quantifying Movie Magic with Google Search”, 2012) • “[S]ome reality programmes are engaged in the intentional production of a perfume of scandal and controversy” (Biltereyst, 2004 , p. 123). Similar pattern with UK, Australian & US Reality shows (c.f. Woodford & Prowd, 2014) • “[E]x ante analysis can produce reasonable estimates that allow studios to decide whether to commit additional financing and make appropriate adjustments to marketing promotions to try and induce greater gross upon release” (Kaplan, 2012, p. 1)
  • 18. THE IMPORTANCE OF HYPE • Traditional ratings measure what people have watched, but have limited impact on what people *will* watch. • That is, they are divorced from the “decision moment”. • Yet, companies spend millions promoting shows and attempting to influence viewer behaviour, both through TV ads and through social media. • How do we measure that?
  • 19. HYPE ALSO ALLOWS PREDICTIONS • Hype is a significant input to a prediction algorithm for social media conversation. • By including hype, and applying other weightings to raw social media statistics, it’s possible to significantly improve predictions vs. a rolling average of previous shows. • Yet, this information still appears to be widely ignored.
  • 20. THE HYPOMETERTM • iOS app developed as functional prototype to act as a ‘modern TV Guide’ for Australian television • Calculates ‘hype’ via a proprietary algorithm which accounts for national and industry context • Ongoing evaluation of both hype figures and predictions vs. post-show TV ratings and social media engagement. • Clear trend towards ‘dynamic’ audiences; a proportion of the population on whom broadcasters should focus.
  • 21. THE BIG BROTHER HYPOMETER TM • Social media as a predictive tool for reality TV • Social media mentions closely match results of in-show voting: e.g. Lawson & Aisha 51.8% in public vote, separated by a few hundred interactions. • Twitter mentions of ‘track’ & housemate name closely mirrored early evictions. • Analysis continues: see TheConversation.com