In its 10 wishes for 2011, the AANA said some of its members were “surprised” to find that Australia’s TV audience measurement metric, which was introduced with the advent of digital recording and time-shifted viewing, does not pick up data on changes to viewing patterns during ad breaks.

OzTam said this was not the case. In a statement, it said: “OzTam is pleased to let the AANA know that audience viewing patterns during ad breaks continue to be measured and reported – as they always have been.”

The ratings body said minute-by-minute viewing data has been available since people meters were introduced in Australia in 1991. The new Unitam meters that were launched this year to measure time shifted viewing, however, only measure viewing of programming that is played back at normal speed – fast-forwarding through ad breaks is not included in the ratings data.

OzTam, which is headed by Doug Peiffer (pictured), said that “virtually all” media agencies subscribe to its data and use the results in post analysis “down to the individual spot level”.