Attentional's Performance Index (previously Target Index) is designed to answer a very simple, albeit crucial question: is this a good performance?

As all experienced analysts will know, this is not as simple as it sounds. For example, what constitutes a good performance on one channel may represent a catastrophic failure on another. A top peaktime drama on Sky1, for example, would be considered extremely successful if it gained a 5% Share of viewing, but a 10% share of viewing would be considered a disaster for a peaktime drama on ITV1.

Different programme genres on the same channel can also be quite a challenge. For example, a 24% share on BBC1 would be considered about average for a peaktime drama but well above average for a politics programme. Even a very experienced analyst would find it difficult to take all relevant factors into account when generating the appropriate benchmark. Attentional's Performance Index does exactly that, by automatically processing an extensive array of metadata.

Each programme's benchmark is based on a 52 week average of all the shows of the same genre that have gone out in the same timeslot and part of the week (i.e. weekday vs. weekend) on the channel in question. This is then used to create an index (where 100 represents an average performance) to give an immediate indication of how a programme has performed. For example, if a light entertainment show on ITV2 has a Performance Index of 150, this immediately tells us that its share of viewing is 50% higher than the average of all the most relevant comparator programmes over the previous 12 month period. While a Performance index of 50, would be indicative of a poor performance, as the show in question is only achieving half the audience share of its most likely comparator programmes.

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