Montreal: BBM Bureau of Broadcast Measurement and Media Metrix Canada have launched a mini-convergence test in a handful of people-metered tv households in b.c. and Ontario.

The ultimate goal of the single-source testing, says Ron Bremner, bbm’s vp television, will be to track both tv and pc use and ‘how television and the Internet are working together’ in all people-metered households in Canada. The number of people-metered homes is expected to rise to about 1,500 in b.c., Toronto, Ontario and Quebec by early 2001.

Initially the tv/pc micro-test will focus on interface issues.

Bremner says the shared-technology program will track tv viewing on the Internet, or pc/tv, and all other related pc usage including the effectiveness of tv-based incitements to go to a specific website address (including a broadcaster’s own websites).

‘Now that we have both these pieces of information [tv and pc measures], we have to map those databases together so we can provide a more comprehensive look at what is going on between the media,’ Bremner says.

Media Metrix Canada is a joint venture between Media Metrix u.s. and ComQUEST Research, a bbm company. Media Metrix is actively expanding its pc measurement panel in Canada.

While Bremner says all people-metered households won’t necessarily have a pc, bbm anticipates a full people-meter rollout of 2,100.