Samba TV to launch Nielsen-rival panel with HyphaMetrics

Samba TV is joining HyphaMetrics to launch a cross-media panel that will integrate with Samba’s three million-household data set to measure viewership across devices and video formats, including linear, streaming and other digital video. In doing so, the companies are kick-starting efforts to launch a U.S. alternative to Nielsen’s 41,000 household panel, an expensive effort that so far hasn’t borne fruit for the Association of National Advertisers, Video Advertising Bureau and others. Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs Initial plans are to have a panel of 5,000 people set up by next year, which can ultimately expand to 10,000, said HyphaMetrics Co-Founder and President Joanna Drews. Recruiting panelists from within Samba’s existing panel will help streamline the process. While Samba TV is the initial backer, the panel will be available for use by other measurement providers such as VideoAmp, Comscore and iSpot.tv, or possibly to industry organizations, Drews said. Samba TV CEO Ashwin Navin said his company is about providing better measurement to players across the market, not necessarily competing as another rival currency. Also read: 12 milestones that reshaped measurement in 2023 ‘Democratizing data’ “We’re here to sell to every vertical,” Navin said. “We’re just here to solve problems. We envision this as a route to everybody and democratizing our big data improved by Hypha’s panel.” Navin said Samba’s panel of three million opt-in households is nationally representative now. But bringing HyphaMetrics panel data into the mix provides visibility into what individuals in households are watching and across a wider array of devices, including broadcast-only households to households that stream video content but don’t have TVs. HyphaMetrics also provides visibility into audiences for user-generated content, video games and other content. “The underlying data sets we use are heavily biased or skewed,” Navin said. “We spent a lot of time building a very representative panel out of our big data set. But there are shortcomings to big data. You don't know who's in front of the screen. You don’t know what’s going on in the other rooms in the household. Hypha solves for that.” For its part, HyphaMetrics has been increasingly turning to partnerships where it applies its technology with other measurement companies, such as Ipsos, in providing TV currency measurement outside the U.S. In the U.S., HyphaMetrics has participated in the lengthy organizational reviews around building a Nielsen-alternative panel for years. “We were always here to build a panel,” Drews said. “And we were going through the motions with the industry. But through our relationship with Samba, now we're hitting the acceleration button.” Check out the latest Ad Age events and award programs HyphaMetrics was VAB members’ preference Talks between the ANA and VAB to launch a Nielsen alternative cross-media panel broke down last year after nearly two years because of the VAB’s concern that the inclusion of big digital platforms, particularly Google, would lead to them funding and ultimately controlling the effort. The VAB subsequently decided that managing a panel was outside the organization’s scope, leaving individual networks or the Joint Industry Committee formed last year as possible funders. HyphaMetrics was the favored panel provider among VAB network members that reviewed contenders last year, according to people familiar with the matter. That’s because it appeared to be the most flexible and “future-proof” solution, covering a wide range of media and devices and relying on passive data collection rather than systems that require people to push buttons or remember to wear devices, such as Nielsen’s People Meters and Portable People Meters. VAB CEO Sean Cunningham declined to comment, but provided a statement through Samba TV and HyphaMetrics backing the deal. “This unique partnership between Samba TV and HyphaMetrics is a significant step in the urgent drive for real measurement reinvention across the video industry,” Cunningham said. “This innovative data set offering should prove to be a crucial accelerator, one that is capable of turning today’s ambitions for best comprehensive measurement solutions into an achieved reality for 2024.” Lower cost for HyphaMetrics Samba and HyphaMetrics executives declined to disclose the cost of setting up the panel, but materials from HyphaMetrics indicate it can run a panel at roughly a seventh of the cost of traditional panels for a variety of reasons. Those include lower hardware costs, lower turnover of panelists because the technology is easier to use and using its own proprietary artificial intelligence and machine learning to identify content on panelist screens rather than having to pay for expensive outside automated content recognition (ACR) or content libraries. Kantar, which appears to be the ANA’s preferred panel provider, at one point cited a $95 million, three-year cost to set up a panel of about 5,000 households, according to a person familiar with the matter. That’s a big outlay given that the ANA had only $61 million in total revenue on its most recently publicly reported tax return in 2021. Footing the bill would require new funding from ANA members, possibly through an assessment based on media spending, which the group is working on, according to people familiar with the matter, or it could require big media funders, such as Google or TV networks. Representatives of the ANA and Kantar declined to comment. Media measurement blog Tracking TV, social and digital updates Click here

Samba TV to launch Nielsen-rival panel with HyphaMetrics

Featured Stories