ATO expands its television project with new mobile panel data
4. 2. 2026
As of 1 February 2026, the official television audience measurement will be expanded to include additional data sources. Measurement will now be carried out not only in the home environment, but also outside the home. This will be enabled by the integration of the existing TV panel with mobile measurement.
For the first time within the ATO project, the new measurement system will make it possible to obtain relevant data on what Czechs watch on television screens outside the home – for example, in weekend houses, restaurants, waiting rooms or other public spaces.
With this step, the Czech television market is entering a new era of television audience measurement, which significantly broadens the current view of television content consumption. For the first time, the mobile panel will also measure the television behaviour of people from households without a television.
This step is a part of the ATO’s long-term strategy, continuously striving to supplement and expand the television audience measurement project in compliance with the developments in viewers’ television behaviour and ongoing technological changes in the field of television broadcasting. The ATO’s goal is also to increase the robustness and scope of measurement, which is reflected in the ever-increasing investment and effort devoted to expanding the current form of television measurement.
“The expansion of the project represents a fundamental step in the ATO’s long-term strategy of building a modular and flexible television audience data system. Measuring out-of-home viewing has been a long-term goal of the ATO, which has been achieved thanks to the cooperation of ATO’s regular members with supplier companies,” says Michal Jordan, ATO’s managing director. He also appreciates the efforts and commitment of the implementers, including meeting ambitious deadlines, thanks to which the combined measurement will be available from 1 February 2026.
ATO members comment on the expansion of the PCEM project as follows:
“The expansion of measurement to include out-of-home viewing is a natural response by ATO to changing viewing habits and the growing consumption of television content regardless of place and time.” Marek Singer, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Prima Group.
“For TV Nova, it is crucial to understand viewers, their needs and the way they consume television content in detail. The new, innovative measurement system will allow us to monitor viewer behaviour even more accurately based on enriched data.” Daniel Grunt, CEO of TV Nova.
“The inclusion of out-of-home viewing in the official data is an important step towards making the measurement better reflect the reality of today’s viewer behaviour. For Czech Television, this will mean that viewers who watch the content in public spaces or communal areas will be more fairly represented in the figures. This could have a significant impact on the Winter Olympics on ČT sport, as people often watch sports broadcasts outside the home. More accurate data will strengthen the credibility of the common currency for the entire market and enable better evaluation of the actual reach of broadcasts.” Hynek Chudárek, CEO of Czech Television.
Ivan Mikula, Director of Televize Seznam, sees the expansion of television audience measurement as crucial in many respects. “As a technology company, we are convinced that expanding the existing measurement with results from the new out-of-home measurement project will contribute to significant improvement in the quality and accuracy of television audience measurement.”
“Thanks to the inclusion of out-of-home viewing, thematic stations will obtain more accurate data on viewership. This step is particularly important for sports and music channels, which viewers also watch in public spaces. Thanks to the new currency, advertisers gain a more comprehensive and data-accurate picture of viewer behaviour.” Managing Director of Atmedia Czech, Michaela Suráková.
“ÓČKO offers stations that create a pleasant atmosphere for entertainment. It is obvious that people enjoy them outside the home. Now this is also evident from official data.” Štěpán Wolde, CEO of Stanice O.
Technical solution
The current people meter panel (PCEM) of approximately 1,900 households, representing 4,200 individuals aged 4+, has been newly enriched with an additional 1,500 respondents aged 15+ involved in mobile measurement, significantly increasing the total capacity of the ATO research sample.
The mobile measurement – ReDAM measurement – is carried out by ResSOLUTION Group. The ReDAM measurement respondent panel uses mobile phones with a special application utilising DCore Software technology. This application has been active since December 2025 with more than 1,500 respondents.
The current people meter panel (PCEM) is implemented by Nielsen Admosphere, whose local team is also the author of the data fusion that combines data from both panels. The data fusion was developed specifically for the needs of the Czech television project and has become an integral part of it.
“The daily fusion of two audience measurement panels is an interesting challenge – we are delighted that ATO has entrusted it to us,” says Tomáš Hanzák, chief analyst at Nielsen Admosphere.
INFO BOX: What does the expansion of the television audience measurement project bring?
What role does data fusion play in the expansion?
Data fusion is the statistical linking of data from two separate research projects into a single output data file made available in user software.
What data sources does ATO link?
ATO links data from the existing people meter panel (PCEM) implemented by Nielsen Admosphere with data from ReDAM measurements implemented by ResSOLUTION Group, which is based on the use of mobile technology and focuses on television viewing outside the home.
How is this new approach beneficial?
The expansion of the project makes it possible to enrich television audience measurement with situations that have not yet been systematically captured – in particular, viewing television content outside the home. The result is a more comprehensive picture of viewer behaviour across different environments and significantly more accurate data on television media behaviour.
What will be possible to monitor thanks to the new data?
The new system will enable the analysis of television content viewing not only in households, but also in weekend houses, restaurants, waiting rooms and other public spaces, taking into account screen size.
What do the “strict requirements” for the construction of the ReDAM panel mean?
The panel was created from scratch, without using any previous panels. The implementer has guaranteed that no members of existing online (or other) panels will be used for panel recruitment. Compliance with panel structure standards (similar to those for the people meter panel) is guaranteed. It is deliberately ensured that respondents have no connection to the people meter panel. These measures ensure the neutrality of the panel and its higher quality than is standard in similar solutions. For ATO, robustness and transparency are essential requirements of the measurement ecosystem.
When will the final data be available?
Live data will be available from 1 February 2026. ATO data users have had the opportunity to work with the merged data in test mode since the beginning of November 2025. Data will be delivered daily, with the delivery time delayed compared to the past by the time needed to process ReDAM data and perform data fusion. ATO will work closely with the project implementers to monitor the speed of delivery, stability, quality and interpretability of the data and, based on experience from real-world operation, gradually optimise the methodology, form of outputs and delivery times.
What does this mean specifically for data users?
Work in the user software will continue as before, with the default viewership setting now including viewership at home and viewership outside the home on large screens. However, it will also be possible to analyse viewership at home and outside the home separately.