New iKOANALYTICS capability combines satellite monitoring, distribution data and audience analytics to give broadcasters unprecedented visibility into their satellite channels and how they are being consumed.
iKO Media Group (iKOMG) has launched iKOANALYTICS, a new satellite analytics and monitoring capability that enables broadcasters and channel distributors gain deeper insight into the performance and consumption of channels distributed via satellite. Integrated within the latest evolution of iKOMG’s iKOSYSTEM platform, the new capability brings satellite monitoring and distribution data together with audience analytics, giving customers access to operational and viewership intelligence from one environment.
The launch addresses a long-standing challenge for the satellite broadcast industry. While satellite remains fundamental to the distribution of television channels to large audiences around the world, the level of data available to broadcasters has traditionally been limited compared with digital and OTT distribution. Once a channel is distributed, understanding how it is being received and consumed — including where audiences are watching, for how long and on which connected devices — has historically been difficult to determine.
iKOANALYTICS gives broadcasters a much clearer view. Alongside satellite monitoring and distribution information, customers can access audience data including minutes watched, total accesses, device information and geographic insights for supported connected television environments. This brings information that has previously been difficult to obtain into the day-to-day management of satellite services, allowing broadcasters to better understand both their distribution and the audiences it reaches.
For channel owners and distributors, the implications extend well beyond monitoring. Viewership data is central to the commercial value of a television channel, influencing programming, distribution strategy, market development and commercial decisions. Providing greater visibility into satellite viewing therefore has the potential to change the way broadcasters evaluate and optimize a distribution method that continues to reach significant audiences worldwide.
“This is a revolutionary step for satellite distribution,” said Adir Hadad, VP Cloud Services at iKO Media Group. “Broadcasters invest heavily in getting their channels in front of audiences, yet once those channels are distributed by satellite, understanding actual viewing behavior has historically been much harder. iKOANALYTICS changes that equation. We’re bringing together satellite data, monitoring and audience intelligence to give broadcasters a depth of insight they simply haven’t had before. For us, this is about more than adding analytics; it’s about bringing a new level of intelligence to satellite broadcasting and giving our customers the data to make better-informed commercial, distribution and content decisions – something very different from what they used to have before with satellite”.
iKOANALYTICS is integrated into iKOSYSTEM, iKOMG’s unified platform for managing its broadcast and media services, and forms part of the continued evolution of the platform with iKOSYSTEM 2.0. The integration allows customers to move directly between operational and analytics environments with full visibility on their overall services. Satellite and distribution intelligence can sit alongside the wider tools and services they already access through iKOSYSTEM, extending the platform from centralized service management into deeper operational and business insight.
The addition builds on iKOMG’s original vision for iKOSYSTEM: to simplify increasingly complex broadcast operations by bringing services, management and information together in one secure environment. With iKOANALYTICS, that principle now extends to data, giving broadcasters greater insight on the delivery of their channels, as well as what happens after those channels reach the viewer.
Audience analytics are available from compatible internet-connected television environments across supported satellite fleets.
iKOMG representatives will be at IBC in Amsterdam to discuss iKOANALYTICS, satellite analytics and monitoring, audience intelligence and the continued evolution of iKOSYSTEM, as well as the changing role of satellite within today’s increasingly data-driven broadcast and media landscape.
