- Startup Vuer aims to close a measurement gap for co-viewing CTV audiences, offering a new complementary approach that will be live with PoCs in Q4
- It taps TV Bluetooth signals to detect nearby mobile devices, using phones as a proxy to measure people co-viewing CTV
- Privacy-compliant tech also uses built-in mobile phone motion sensors for signals on presence and attention, collecting data in 10-second increments
- Measurement requires a one-time consumer opt-in and Vuer aims to partner with large, popular mobile apps for consent
- Verified co-viewing could help unlock more ad revenue for content owners and sports rights holders and value for advertisers and sports leagues
How many people watched your TV ad or program? Or better yet, how many people tuned in for a high-profile live sports event?
The advent of connected TV has seen TV audience measurement evolve (though with plenty of room to go) but an accurate answer to the co-viewing factor of how many people are actually in the room watching has remained elusive.
But that doesn’t mean it has decreased in importance.
Particularly in the case of live sports as costs for rights continue to climb and sports stand as one of the few remaining types of programming able to draw large, simultaneous audiences. As such, content owners are keen to maximize value of live sports rights and see the full audience reflected in ad revenue, while advertisers are likely eager to have more accurate co-viewing measurement to understand the true reach of impressions and what ad dollars get them, as well as to optimize budgets and reduce waste.
And it’s not just live sports where a lack of verified co-viewing measurement means ad revenue left on the table for content owners.
An April ThinkTV-commissioned Canadian viewership white paper on the measurement gap for co-viewing found that Canadian TV delivers 40-60% more audience than current measurement systems report – driven by co-viewing in streaming environments – representing $1 billion - $1.7 billion in unrecognized annual value.
For sports and live events, the April study found undercounting even more stark – estimating the audience at 130-200% larger, which translates to an estimated $600 million -$1billion annual unrealized impact.
With that in mind, Vuer is one startup aiming to fill this gap in the market and deliver a new method for CTV measurement that provides a more robust, verified and scaled answer to the key yet challenging question of TV co-viewing via patent-pending tech that detects mobile phone devices in the room and uses them as a proxy for people.
Using mobile devices to estimate CTV co-viewing
We spoke with Vuer co-founders Gary Yentin, Chief Operating and Growth Officer, and CEO Omar Delgado to get the scoop on Vuer’s technology, the measurement gap it aims to solve and benefits it hopes to bring for content owners and advertisers in the CTV space.
The co-founders described how the startup is working to do so by tapping into TV’s Bluetooth signals and the existing consumer behavior of viewers likely having a mobile phone in hand while watching TV to identify the presence of consenting nearby mobile devices.
Vuer’s privacy-compliant technology requires a one-time opt-in consent from viewers and leverages mobile devices’ built-in motion sensors to distinguish between a phone with an actively present person versus an unattended device in the room.
Once a person’s presence is inferred via detection of a mobile phone within a specified distance of the TV, that and other built-in mobile phone signals translate to near real-time data for verified estimates of co-viewing or how many people are actually in a room are watching together.
Vuer also leans on mobile phone gyroscopes and motion sensors to collect data and infer signals on attention and second-screen usage based on the position and distance (or directionality and proximity) of the mobile device from the TV. For example, the phone upright facing a viewer as they scroll while TV content plays versus a screen-down, phone locked or idle position next to someone on the couch.
Of course, there are caveats for those viewing TV without a mobile device nearby, or co-viewing among families as younger members of the household might not have mobile devices or the apps to opt-in for Bluetooth connectivity and data collection – as Vuer’s measurement would not include them.
However, with its approach, Vuer believes it can help media owners better demonstrate the true audience behind a television impression – potentially supporting higher inventory value for content owners (meaning the ability to command higher CPMs based on verified co-viewing data) and more accurate reach measurement for advertisers.
The startup is still in proof-of-concept stages and is working to be live with trials in Q4. Vuer received a nod of industry validation in February when it was selected for the Coalition of Innovative Media Measurement’s (CIMM) 2026 Startup Program.
The vendor’s initial focus with PoC trials is on sports. That’s because of the strong co-viewing behavior associated with that type of content and the potential immediate value that verified audiences can create for rights holders, broadcasters, advertisers and sponsors.
But the technology could also potentially support other highly shared programming – like fan watch parties of the hit unscripted reality series Love Island, for example – as well as the notoriously hard-to-measure co-viewing factor in bars, restaurants and other out-of-home environments.
And the larger opportunity Vuer sees, per the co-founders, is to connect TV and mobile signals while preserving consumer privacy—creating a clearer picture of verified exposure, co-viewing and second-screen engagement.
While its technology is meant to fill a gap in the market, Delgado emphasized Vuer is designed to provide additional data and signals that complement existing panels and other forms of TV audience measurement, not replace them.
A complement to panel-based measurement
Before digging more into Vuer’s tech, it’s worth noting there are other measurement approaches that aim to accurately estimate the number of people watching together as well as prove attention to the screen. Among those are panel-based measurements from Nielsen and TVision – the latter which includes eye-tracking technology to measure attention.
“Those are great, but they don't really do what we're trying to do at scale, which is to measure how many people are in the room watching a connected TV show,” Yentin said of panel-based measurement like that from Nielsen and TVision.
Panels are typically at the house-hold level, meaning accurate individual versus co-viewing is not always as visible. Panels can also be pricey, require more from the consumer opt-in and management perspective, and can sometimes be limited in scope, scale or representation.
Although panel-based measurement has been able to give a more accurate view of co-viewing on linear TV, as viewing shifted to streaming, measurement started shifting towards big data and counting CTV at the device-level, which doesn’t account for multiple people watching the same device.
The Think TV Canada study recommended a three-layer solution to the co-viewing gap, with panels at the base, calibrated by census device-level measurement (like ACR etc), and finally a so-called presence layer calibrated to the panel with privacy-safe co-viewing signals – a la Vuer.
With its trio of Bluetooth connectivity, mobile phones and a one-time viewer consent opt-in via mobile apps for measurement, Vuer believes it can scale and better validate the co-viewing metric via a methodology that naturally aligns with widespread consumer behavior.
“At least nine out of 10 people have the phone nearby [while watching TV], and so that became a really interesting opportunity for us, saying that we can actually measure…people via phones,” Yentin noted.
People also bring phones into bedrooms, where other measurements like panels that record audio or video might not be welcomed.
Ratings and measurement giant Nielsen itself just made changes to its methodology at the start of this year’s football season. That includes incorporating data from its smart watch-like wearable devices that were piloted earlier this year, are worn on panelists wrists and capture audio from TV events, shows and movies. With wearable in play, Nielsen aims to enable a more passive form measurement as well as more accurate counts of co-viewing.
Still, Vuer execs emphasized the tech’s complementary nature.
Per Delgado, other forms of measurement like panels can use Vuer’s signals to extrapolate their own findings. Unlike panels that are more limited in scope, Vuer’s mandate, he explained, “is really scale” – providing signals on head count and second screen usage in front of the TV.
It’s all about “understanding how many people are in the room, and if they actually are using their phone or not,” Delgado explained.
The vendor doesn’t collect data or know specifically what people are doing on their phone, he added, “but we can tell when they're actually on their phone while watching TV.”
And for Vuer, measurement collection working passively in the background is part of the appeal – as is relying on mobile devices that are already in most every viewer’s hand or pocket.
Vuer’s co-viewing measurement approach
As mentioned Vuer’s tech leverages Bluetooth signals from the TV to detect nearby mobile devices that have consented to the data collection to – using mobile device presence to infer the number of people actively present within a specified zone around the TV when content and ads are playing.
As Yentin described, Bluetooth signals from the TV act as the catalyst while the mobile device and app with Bluetooth enabled serves as the so-called catcher to detect presence in the room.
To obtain consent and have the measurement become active on an individual’s phone Vuer aims to partner with popular mobile apps that consumers already use.
Through mobile apps, users would get an in-app notification, for example, seeking consent for Bluetooth connectivity and to opt-in to the data collection for measurement (which might appear as something like ‘this app is participating in cross-screen measurement to personalize your ad experience’). Users would also be able to opt-out at any time.
The co-founders believe this approach will help scale the measurement more easily, as Bluetooth adoption is already very high and the functionality is commonly enabled between CTV devices and mobile phones. The need for just one-time mobile app consent opt-in from consumers is also key.
From there, the tech works passively and viewers don’t need to be actively using an app while watching TV. It collects data in the background whether an app is open, closed, or if the phone is idle or the screen locked.
It’s also near-real time as Vuer collects and provides co-viewing and engagement data in approximately 10-second increments. That can then be fed into SSPs to help content owners validate higher CPMs based on co-viewing.
Importantly, the startup says its tech is privacy compliant and doesn’t collect personally identifiable information (PII) or use mobile devices to track viewers’ location. But again, it does use built-in mobile device signals on the phone about proximity, motion and directionality within the so-called TV-specific viewing zone to help distinguish between people who are actively present versus unattended devices in the room and to infer signals on attention and second-screen usage. Though to be clear, Vuer does not collect data on viewers’ specific mobile app usage.
Still, for Vuers tech to work and scale it’s going to need the buy-in – both from consumers and from mobile app partners that are key to obtaining viewer consent for Bluetooth connectivity and data collection in the first place. It also requires participating OEMs that emit the Bluetooth signals and publisher permissions.
Targeting popular mobile apps for consent, scale
As for the apps, Vuer’s tech could work directly within an OTT provider, say Netflix, to include an opt-in on the SVOD’s mobile app. However, Yentin and Delgado noted SVOD apps don’t always get the most mobile usage and therefore see more opportunity to partner with some of the largest and most popular apps for things like gaming, music and others (think the likes of Spotify, Candy Crush or apps from Big Tech players like Google, Amazon and Meta) that get more regular consumption – and therefore can help the form of measurement scale more quickly as users opt-in.
Note, those named are target mobile apps Vuer would like to work with but does not have any commercial agreements with as of this article’s publication.
“We want to get a bigger scale to get a wider audience,” Yentin explained.
As such, the founders are understandably keen to partner with as many mobile apps as possible to catch those signals, and Vuer has a target of 70% penetration. It’s a goal Yentin and Delgado believe can be accomplished if they get major players on board like apps from tech, social and gaming mobile giants.
At that percentage, Yentin said Vuer’s measurement would be bigger than the largest existing panels globally, which he noted are roughly 3,000-5,000 people.
“Ours will scale much larger than that,” the executive commented. “And it's also a global one, so there's no hardware, so it's a very cost-effective.”
To help build a base and scale the number of app partners Vuer would also look to work with an SSP like a Magnite or Pubmatic, for example, that aggregate mobile apps together and could help cascade to others.
Mobile app partners also get benefits, Delgado explained, as Vuer provides insights and better understanding of how their users are consuming TV ads and content, which can lend itself to richer audience segments.
Real-time measurement nature key for live sports
Measuring co-viewing for sports is the first application Vuer is focused on. There, PoCs will aim to prove that content owners can charge a higher CPM when audiences warrant it based on verified co-viewing data.
In addition to the value and high index of co-viewing for live sports, Yentin noted this vertical also appears to have the largest amount of content that’s being streamed with advertising a key focus.
For example, Paramount paid $7.7 billion under a 7-year deal for exclusive rights for UFC on Paramount+. If a company like that could show an advertiser that 2-3 more people were watching their live sports streaming event, in theory they could charge a higher CPM for the larger verified audience.
Similarly, if sports leagues and teams could show higher viewership rates from verified co-viewing, they could charge more for licenses.
The near real-time nature of Vuer’s tech also plays a role in initially targeting sports and the value it can help drive, as co-viewing is an ever-changing metric that can be influenced by a variety of factors – including around sports.
As Delgado noted, a winning team is more likely to draw simultaneous viewing, while a team in one region might consistently generate more co-viewing than another.
Vuer follows a performance-based mode, generating revenue by taking a portion of the verified CPM lift tied to co-viewing, as opposed to charging a large upfront cost.
Live sports is the first application, but the technology is somewhat flexible and the company is currently exploring various use cases for Vuer and finding out what specific industry needs are. There’s also potential for ad personalization and targeting, but those concepts would be farther down the line.
Will consumers buy (or opt-) in?
More accurate co-viewing measurement certainly holds appeal for content owners and advertisers, but will it get the opt-in from consumers?
Per the co-founders, Vuer’s methodology is respective of privacy and doesn’t collect any PII.
Although the measurement collects data on mobile device distance and positioning relative to the TV, is doesn’t track or save information on users’ locations, including what room of the house, be it living or bedroom. It also doesn’t collect any audio or video for measurement, and all data is aggregated and anonymized.
Yentin and Delgado also think it better fits the bill for consumers versus other methodologies as the technology is passive and after giving consent once, users don’t need to do anything else for data collection and analysis to take place. They also noted high adoption of Bluetooth as lending itself to consumer consent. However, at this point the startup has primarily been focused on building up the infrastructure of participating mobile apps and OEM partners before starting on consumer opt-ins.
Still, adoption and willingness by consumers to opt-in for this form of measurement is vital and the co-founders said it will be one of the key aspects Vuer seeks to test and understand with proof-of-concept trials.
“We want to understand what the opt-in rate is going to be,” Delgado said, acknowledging it’s a very nascent technology and they don’t have the numbers yet but will be watching closely over the next six months to see how many people it can get to participate.
How consumer opt-in plays out remains to be seen but while still in very early days, Vuer’s patent-pending CTV co-viewing measurement approach is interesting.
It taps into the second-screen usage already understood to be common among consumers, as well as widespread Bluetooth adoption, to provide new signals that could enable content owners and advertisers to better measure elusive co-viewing audiences and get signals on attention. This in turn could help unlock unrealized ad dollars or monetization and complement other forms of measurement to give a fuller CTV co-viewing picture, as well as second-screen usage signals, in a potentially faster, more scaled and less cumbersome way.
Per Yentin, Vuer believes it can provide scaled data about the number of people that were in the room when an ad or TV program played - information which is needed to lay the groundwork to drive other key efforts and business needs like monetization and retention.
“Ours is the foundation that all other measurements can build on, because you need to know actually how many people are there first,” Yentin said.