The new Foresight tool aims to provide users with insights into how customers will react to new offers and uses “sophisticated modelling techniques” to pinpoint the optimal price point, Kantar said.

Foresight will also help media owners determine the best content packages to offer to different customer groups.

Director Sarah Sanderson said: “This service has been developed to help our clients address the challenges they face in seeking new business models for their digital content, whether its a subscription model or a hybrid part-subscription, part-advertising funded model. Publishers need incisive and robust consumer insights to guide their decision-making as they weigh up the risk/return equation.”

Kantar has launched the tool on the eve of what could be a critical moment in the history of online publishing as News International prepares to charge readers for access to the Times and Sunday Times websites.