Television & Media Intelligence
How We Build a Television Monitoring Assignment
A monitoring set-up is only useful if it answers a question someone actually has. Our method starts with that question and works backwards to the sources.
The audiovisual sector produces an enormous amount of public communication: commissioning announcements, market news, platform updates, regulatory consultations, technical specifications and financial reporting. Very little of it is relevant to any one organisation at any one moment.
Our work is therefore as much about exclusion as about collection. We define what falls outside the perimeter, document why, and concentrate the analysis on the signals that can genuinely change a scheduling, acquisition, distribution or investment decision.
Seven stages, applied to every assignment
The sequence does not change, whether the subject is a single format travelling between territories or the full competitive environment of a national broadcaster.
-
Understanding the need
We begin with a conversation about the decision in front of you, its timing and the people who will read the output. A monitoring brief written from keywords alone almost always produces the wrong perimeter.
- What arbitration, negotiation or planning cycle does this monitoring have to support?
- Who reads the deliverable, and what do they already know about the subject?
- What would make the assignment useless: too much detail, too slow, or the wrong territory?
-
Defining the scope
Territories, channels, platforms, genres, companies, technologies and time horizon are written down and validated before any collection begins. That written scope is the reference for everything that follows.
- Explicit inclusion list: which groups, services, genres or standards are followed.
- Explicit exclusion list: what is deliberately left out, and on what grounds.
- Time horizon: whether we look back over previous seasons or start from the current one.
-
Selecting the sources
Sources are chosen for each assignment. A regulatory watch and a format watch do not rely on the same material, and a source that is essential in one market may be irrelevant in another.
- Primary material first: official communication, filings, regulatory publications, technical specifications.
- Trade and specialised media, weighted by their reliability on the subject concerned.
- Local-language sources wherever the information appears first in a language other than English.
-
Collecting and qualifying
Collection runs continuously within the agreed perimeter. Every item is dated, attributed and given a status, so that a recycled announcement is never counted twice as new movement.
- Cross-checking between independent sources before an item is treated as established.
- Clear separation between confirmed facts, stated intentions and unattributed reports.
- Removal of duplicates, syndicated copies and republished material.
-
Analysing with human judgement
Digital tools handle volume, classification and change detection. Interpreting what a schedule change, a licence renewal or a platform restructuring actually means remains the work of an analyst.
- Automation is used for monitoring and sorting, never for the conclusion.
- Every analytical statement can be traced back to the material that supports it.
- Where the evidence does not allow a conclusion, the deliverable says so explicitly.
-
Producing alerts, syntheses or reports
The output takes the form agreed during scoping: an immediate alert, a recurring bulletin, a benchmark, a mapping, a tracking table or a full report, written for its intended readers.
- Structure by theme and by decision, not by source or by date of publication.
- A short reading path at the top for readers who only have a few minutes.
- Consistent criteria from one edition to the next, so trends remain comparable.
-
Adjusting the set-up
Scope, sources, frequency and format are reviewed at agreed intervals. Markets move, priorities change, and an arrangement that is never revisited slowly stops answering the original question.
- Review of what was actually used internally and what was never opened.
- Addition or removal of territories, players and themes as priorities shift.
- Adjustment of frequency when the pace of the subject changes.
Ten delivery formats
Formats are combined according to the subject. A rights calendar and a competitive alert have nothing in common except the perimeter they share.
Immediate alert
Sent as soon as a qualifying event occurs in your perimeter, with the essential facts, the source and a short note on what it changes for you.
Daily summary
A short daily digest for fast-moving subjects such as an ongoing rights negotiation, a market week or a regulatory process in its final stages.
Weekly bulletin
The most common rhythm for competitive monitoring: a structured review of the week, grouped by theme, separating confirmed movements from signals still to be verified.
Monthly report
A wider analysis over a month, showing trajectories rather than events, and highlighting where the competitive picture has genuinely shifted.
One-off study
A single dedicated piece of work on a precise question, with its own scope, its own sources and an explicit statement of the limits of what could be established.
Benchmark
A structured comparison of channels, platforms, offers or catalogues against criteria fixed in advance and applied identically to every item compared.
Mapping
A visual and written representation of an ecosystem: who owns what, who distributes for whom, and where the dependencies and overlaps sit.
Tracking table
A maintained structured file of titles, deals, rights windows, technical projects or regulatory files, updated on an agreed cycle and usable directly by your teams.
Custom research
Targeted research on a specific point: identifying rights holders, tracing the history of a format, or reconstructing the distribution path of a catalogue.
Strategic support
Regular working sessions in which the monitoring is discussed with your teams, questions are refined and the next period of work is redirected.
The five parameters of a set-up
These are the variables we settle during scoping. They determine the cost of attention on your side as much as the workload on ours.
- Frequency
- From continuous alerting on a sensitive subject to a single annual review. The right frequency is the one that lands before your decisions rather than after them.
- Languages
- Sources are read in the languages where the information appears. Deliverables are written in English or French, with original wording kept when a term has no stable equivalent.
- Sources
- Official communication, regulatory publications, financial filings, trade media, technical documentation and professional events, selected and weighted for each subject.
- Geographical areas
- One territory, a language area, a region or a global perimeter. Media markets rarely align with borders, so the boundary is defined by market logic rather than by convention.
- Delivery channel
- Written deliverables, structured files or working sessions, sent through the channel your teams already use so the output is read rather than archived unopened.
What we hold ourselves to
- Every factual statement is attributed to an identifiable source, with its date of publication.
- Confirmed facts, stated intentions and unverified reports are always distinguished from one another.
- When the available material does not support a conclusion, the deliverable says so instead of filling the gap.
- The same analytical criteria are applied from one edition to the next, so comparisons remain valid over time.
- The subject of an assignment is treated as confidential information belonging to the organisation that commissioned it.
Questions about our method
How long does it take to set up a monitoring assignment?
The scoping conversation and the written scope usually take the longest, because that is where the perimeter is decided. Once the scope is validated, collection begins immediately and the first deliverable follows the agreed rhythm. Complex perimeters covering several markets and languages need more preparation.
Do you use automated tools or human analysts?
Both, in clearly separated roles. Automation handles collection, deduplication, classification and change detection across large volumes of public material. Analysts qualify the results, cross-check them and write the interpretation. No conclusion is produced without human review.
Can we change the scope once the assignment has started?
Yes, and it is often necessary. Markets move and internal priorities shift. Scope, frequency and format are reviewed at agreed intervals, and adjustments can also be made between reviews when something significant changes in your environment.
What happens to the deliverables and the underlying material?
Deliverables belong to the organisation that commissioned them. They are not reused for other clients, not published and not shown as examples of our work. Source material is retained only for the duration needed to maintain continuity of the assignment.
Tell us what you need to monitor
Describe your subject, your markets and your decision timeline. We study every request individually before proposing a monitoring set-up.
Every request is reviewed confidentially. No commitment is required to discuss a scope of work.