Research firm Kantar has changed the way its MMI (Marketing & Media Index) survey measures television in Ukraine, moving from TV set viewing to consumption of TV content across platforms. The underlying study, TV_DAR, was commissioned by Ukrainian media group Starlight Media, the group said in a statement.
MMI is a regular study of how Ukrainians consume media and what they buy. The advertising market relies on it to analyse audiences and plan campaigns.
Until now the survey’s television section mostly answered a single question — did someone watch a TV set? But a big TV project no longer lives on linear broadcast alone. The same content streams on OTT services such as Sweet TV, Megogo and Kyivstar TV, pulls in millions of views on YouTube, and lives on through clips on TikTok and other social networks, Starlight Media says. Viewing has scattered across devices and services, so the survey needed a method closer to what audiences actually do.
That is precisely what TV_DAR measures — the reach and duration of both traditional and digital TV viewing. It runs on the day-after-recall method, asking respondents to remember how they watched TV content the day before. According to Starlight Media, this reconstructs specific viewing situations and gives a fuller picture of media consumption than general questions about television.
Follow Mediasat on Google News: the latest in TV, telecom and tech
“Measurement methodology has to match how people actually consume media,” said Kyrylo Yezhov, commercial director of Kantar Ukraine. Combining MMI and TV_DAR data, he said, keeps the strengths of both studies and reflects current viewing habits more accurately.
From September 5, 2026, MMI replaced its TV set reach and duration metrics with TV content consumption figures from TV_DAR. The two datasets are merged through data fusion, a technique that matches similar respondent profiles. In practice it is a shift from device-based to content-based measurement, Ukrainian outlet Detector Media notes.
The difference lies in what is being counted. Device-based measurement looks at the screen and asks whether a person watched a TV set. Content-based measurement starts from the content and asks a broader question — did the person consume it at all? That is why reach and duration in MMI now refer to TV content rather than to the television set.
Oksana Pypych, head of research and analytics at Starlight Media, said Ukrainians have long watched TV content beyond the TV set, while MMI still counted the device. Integrating TV_DAR, she said, moves the survey from device-based to content-based logic. “Now we capture the behavioural reality of cross-platform viewing,” she said.
Ratings for individual channels in MMI stay unchanged. TV_DAR only updates the overall reach and duration figures for TV content and does not measure viewing of specific broadcasters.
The change was reviewed and backed by the technical committee of the Industrial Television Committee, Ukraine’s TV industry body. In parallel, the market is discussing the launch of another media consumption study as an alternative to the traditional TV panel.
