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Access a Rigorous and Independent TV Universe Study
The ARF DASH TV Universe Study paints a comprehensive picture of the consumer television landscape. DASH records, in granular detail, how US consumers connect to and consume TV, including their use of digital devices and streaming services. DASH employs a national probability sample to produce reliable values and modeling signals useful in measurement, identity, media planning and content strategy.
Seven companies, representing a cross-section of the industry, sponsored the first DASH study in 2021. DASH has since been conducted annually, in two waves, each updated to market. The 2023 study delves more deeply into ad-supported streaming and in- and out-of-home viewing dynamics.
The ARF is offering DASH licenses to ARF members and non-members alike, with the goal of creating an industry standard. The ARF is also pursuing MRC accreditation, with a pre-audit of DASH in 2023 and a full audit in 2024.
Licensees have access to the respondent-level data set for estimating universes, correcting biases in viewership data, modeling variables and assigning impressions, accounts and devices to individuals and households, among many applications.
In addition, through a collaboration with Experian, DASH-defined audience segments are available on a CPM basis on many ad platforms. These segments allow advertisers to align campaigns with consumers’ media usage habits.
To learn more, contact Jim Meyer, General Manager, or Paul Donato, ARF Chief Research Officer, at DASH@thearf.org or by clicking the link below.
Industry Leaders Explain the Benefits of the DASH Study
Understand TV, Device and Account Usage
With the digitization of TV has come fragmentation and massive complexity, presenting unprecedented challenges for all who need a precise, cohesive understanding of usage at the household and persons levels. The options available to consumers have exploded. Most everyone has multiple user profiles, shares devices and accounts with family and friends, and, at least occasionally, watches TV with others. 
At the same time, streaming viewership data from TV sets and set-top boxes, and first-party data from networks and advertisers, have opened up new modes of TV measurement and audience delivery.
Complicating things further, each provider’s view of usage is limited to its own “footprint” or relationships. Some companies conduct their own enumeration studies or piece together disparate datasets to create a basis for universe estimation, but those approaches can be expensive and produce results with limited value. To knit the pieces together coherently, credibly and efficiently, companies need a reliable calibration standard. That standard is DASH.
Unravel Cross-Platform and Cross-Device Usage
The ARF partners with NORC at the University of Chicago to develop the DASH survey and conduct the 
fieldwork against a national probability sample of 10,000+ persons, age 18 and older, with an additional sample of teens users ages 13-17. NORC’s AmeriSpeak panel forms the backbone of the sample plan. Panel registrations provide respondent and household demographics. Interviews are conducted online, in person and by phone, and NORC’s rigorous processes and audit procedures ensure high-quality response data.
DASH gathers data on every TV set: brand, room location, age, “smartness,” and connection devices and modes, including pay, broadband and antenna. DASH captures all service providers, including ISPs, MVPDs and vMVPDs, streamers and FASTs. DASH itemizes person-level ownership and usage of video-capable mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets and laptops, enabling production of a robust device graph that supports householding. DASH collects measures of respondents’ viewing and co-viewing across dayparts, devices and services, to generate rich modeling signals. And modules on ecommerce, streaming audio, social media, email and apps create a holistic view.
Get Timely Data
DASH is conducted annually in two waves. The Spring wave of DASH 2023 was released to licensees in September. The Fall wave and full year results will be released in January 2024. Full year results from DASH 2022 and 2021 are also available.
License DASH
The ARF offers licenses to DASH 2023 data in three tiers, starting at $75,000, a fraction of the cost of conducting a similar study on your own.
Tier levels include:
- Basic offers summary-level data in Tableau and web dashboards for strategic analyses, panel weighting, modeling household topographies and planning and packaging media.
- Plus adds a non-matchable, anonymized, respondent-level database for custom segmentation, profiling and analysis.
- Premiumadds a privacy-compliant, respondent-level database that can be matched to the licensee’s census-level viewership or consumer database, using a third-party integrator. Experian, the ARF’s integration partner for this study, has developed a turn-key integration protocol and offers its service to Premium licensees.
Licensees of DASH 2023 who also license data from previous years will get access to a longitudinal data set with up to 3,000 repeat respondents, for analysis of switching dynamics.
To learn more, contact Jim Meyer, DASH General Manager, or Paul Donato, ARF Chief Research Officer, at DASH@thearf.org or by clicking the link below.