It will now develop a suite of tools to support planning and analytics for the TV industry in both the UK and Spain. The new tools will be available commercially to the Spanish media industry in 2014.

They will bring together social TV data from Twitter with the audience research expertise of Kantar Media, enabling broadcasters to “assess programmes and series, plan programme promotions more effectively and assist media buyers and sellers to integrate insights from social data more comprehensively into the TV component of their media mix.”

Andy Brown, global CEO of Kantar Media (pictured), said: “Our partnership with Twitter will give broadcasters, agencies, and brands a holistic view of audience behaviour when viewing television content so that they can better understand and amplify the social engagement around their programming. Whilst electronic TV measurement services continue to be the recognised currency for TV viewing around the world, I’m delighted that we can bring to the Spanish and UK markets tools to complement the existing ratings services.”

Twitter COO Ali Rowghani added: “Our users love using Twitter while tuned into television to interact with talent and participate in the live social conversation about TV. In this way, Twitter has become a live companion to the TV viewing experience for millions of people in Spain and around the world, and we are thrilled that Kantar Media will be bringing its considerable audience measurement experience to bear to develop tools and standards for the industry.”