Competitors continue trying to steal Nielsen’s market share.
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
Despite years of talk about a multi-currency TV measurement world, Nielsen has done a good job of ensuring it remains the dominant player in the U.S. market, even if it has meant cutting more favorable deals for networks that long labored under onerous multi-year contracts.
Due to the inertia of clients used to dealing and analyzing TV buys based on traditional demographics and Nielsen currency, the giant has kept its panel-based average commercial minutes around as the standard for yet another year—despite plans to ultimately switch to big data plus panel and individual commercial minutes as the primary methods and measures.
Even so, other players such as VideoAmp, iSpot.tv and Comscore continue trying to steal Nielsen’s market share. And they may have a better chance of that as the market gravitates toward connected TV and trading on advanced audiences.
As one measurement industry veteran noted, marketers don’t have decades of legacy Nielsen panel databases around buying audiences of people actively in the car market, or buyers of pet food, like they do for conventional age-gender demos. That in itself makes the advanced audience market a more even playing field for challengers of Nielsen.
But the same old, same old Nielsen panel-based demo data could persist for years, said another measurement industry executive, who called it “Monopoly 101” for a company to preserve a moat that reinforces its dominance as long as possible. But that moat mostly surrounds the crumbling castle of linear TV, becoming ever less relevant as streaming, advanced audiences and outcomes-based trading grow.
So the competition isn’t over, even if it’s harder than ever for rivals to break into conventional linear TV currency. Here are the key players currently battling it out in TV measurement.
Maybe 2024 won’t be the year of “all new currencies,” as was once predicted, with Nielsen rivals elbowing out bigger shares than ever. But Nielsen is its own multi-currency world.
Officially, it’s backing trading on individual commercial minutes using its big data plus panel data in the 2024 upfront as the preferred choice. But it’s also continuing to support doing deals based on Nielsen’s 41,000-household panel using the old C3 and C7 average commercial minutes, which the company will still support. And a third flavor, C3 and C7 using big data plus panel, is also on the table. The move to preserve the panel-only legacy metrics, according to Nielsen, was in response to what marketers and agencies wanted.
Nielsen has widely extended contracts with networks, which will pay less than before, but it’s still a fixed amount annually regardless of how much they use Nielsen vs. rival providers. That means networks will have to pay extra to use VideoAmp, iSpot.tv or Comscore. So if you’re a buyer, you have to wonder why a network wants to use a Nielsen alternative and pay extra unless that means more revenue than Nielsen provides. Tough sell.
One caveat: All this is subject to change. The Media Rating Council is considering accreditation of Nielsen's big data plus panel product. Should it get the necessary votes, big data would have the same accreditation as panel ratings, and one that rivals lack. It’s not out of the question that would lead Nielsen to make a late-game switch to drop panel-only ratings as currency ahead of the upfront, much like it did last year when its suspended MRC accreditation for panel-based data was restored.
Even so, competitors remain, particularly in streaming and advanced audiences. Almost every media company trades on Nielsen. But YouTube and Amazon Prime, never locked into the networks’ legacy long-term fixed-price deals, have more flexibility. And they offer VideoAmp, iSpot.tv and (in YouTube’s case) Comscore and its own co-viewing data as options.
Getting the numbers right, of course, does still matter, at least in the abstract. Nielsen’s big data-infused audiences, while bigger for younger and ethnic demos than its panel data, are smaller than VideoAmp’s, according to people familiar with the matter, raising some questions about who’s right and whether Nielsen's legacy panel really is the “source of truth” it’s billed to be. Regardless, it's what the industry mostly trades on, and Nielsen executives have argued that their panel data, the only TV currency backed by MRC accreditation, remains the gold standard.
Described by some on the inside and the outside as a free-spending ad tech company that entered the measurement business, VideoAmp ran up against a financial wall when high interest rates dried up venture capital in 2023. The company did get a new financing round that was mostly credit. But it also saw two waves of layoffs, which resulted in 10% and 20% reductions in force, came in September and January. Founder and CEO Ross McCray stepped down into a board role, board member Peter Ligouri became executive chairman and Peter Bradbury, a well-regarded 25-year Nielsen vet, became chief commercial and growth officer. (He gets high marks from network and rival executives alike for his understanding of how to sell currency measurement).
The question is whether VideoAmp retains the financial staying power to remain a long-term threat to Nielsen. A patent infringement lawsuit brought against VideoAmp by Nielsen late last month, which could cost millions to defend regardless of outcome, adds to the financial pressure.
Patent applications and issued patents for VideoAmp don't appear to cover conventional linear TV measurement methodologies but do extensively cover targeting of advanced audiences, targeting based on online behavior, use of clean rooms and cross-screen audience measurement.
Another advantage for VideoAmp is that it’s a currency option for more networks than any other Nielsen rival. VideoAmp is offered as a currency by Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal, Paramount, Fox Networks, TelevisaUnivision and more. In all, 95% of networks have adopted VideoAmp advanced currency and measurement, in addition to 11 agency groups and 1,000 advertisers, according to the company.
Allen Media Group is the only media company doing deals exclusively on VideoAmp. That deal, though McCray last year indicated in a public appearance that it was unprofitable, helped VideoAmp book more than $2 billion in U.S. TV deals last year— hitting the billions for the first time. Should Byron Allen succeed in acquiring Paramount and bring VideoAmp with him as the preferred measurement, that would change the measurement market share picture in a hurry.
And while it could be an uphill battle for VideoAmp to make further inroads as a linear currency trading on demos, connected TV is shifting fast toward trading on advanced audiences. And VideoAmp is best positioned of any player, Nielsen included, as an advanced audience currency, said network and agency executives, based on its ability to automate trading in advanced audiences and the strength of its identity system.
Nielsen is not exactly ceding that ground either. A Nielsen spokesman noted that the company is well positioned in streaming, with over half of its more than 41,000 households set up with streaming meters, and that customers of its Digital Ad Ratings for currency measurement include Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, Google/YouTube, Roku and Tubi. And he said the company is well positioned in advanced audiences, including through its Nielsen One product suite launched last year.
“Our foundation is built upon rigorous methodologies to commingle disparate data sets, in an effort to give a more holistic view of content and ad viewership,” VideoAmp said in a statement. “Our best-in-class identity spine (achieving an average 70% increase in measurement match rates compared to single-provider solutions) and patented clean-room technology, coupled with our large, high-quality TV viewership data, sets us apart as an industry leader in advanced currency adoption.”
Also, VideoAmp plans to expand into local TV measurement this year, the company confirmed, hoping to join Nielsen and Comscore as major players in that space.
VideoAmp also took a step toward more official credibility in the marketplace by beginning the pre-audit phase last month for MRC accreditation of its linear TV and first-party cross-platform measurement. While VideoAmp lagged Nielsen, ComScore and iSpot in seeking MRC accreditation, it appears ahead of other Nielsen challengers now in seeking accreditation on the processes actually used as currency in the marketplace. And VideoAmp plans to expand this year into local TV measurement, the company confirmed.
ISpot.tv won conditional certification from the JIC for currency measurement, but it doesn’t quite have the scope of network currency partners VideoAmp does.
While VideoAmp was investing heavily to integrate with network and agency systems, iSpot was investing its money in other proprietary assets. Those include last year’s acquisition of 605, bolstering its advanced audience and outcomes measurement business, and an investment last year in TVision that helped fuel a new streaming measurement suite that tracks targeted audience delivery and unifies co-viewing measurement across platforms. ISpot also has invested in its own out-of-home viewing solution through its acquisition of the Tunity app and integrating creative evaluation with audience delivery by acquiring Ace Metrix. ISpot’s ad catalog, bolstered by its deal with TVision with exclusive access to some streaming data, helps build on what may be its strongest asset, its MRC-accredited ad catalog, which is a database of virtually every ad that runs on linear or connected TV.
ISpot already is widely used by marketers for planning and evaluating campaign impact. And it’s a natural complementary fit with agency-focused VideoAmp in a potential industry rollup—though the two sides have yet to seriously discuss a combination, according to people familiar with the matter. As some industry veterans put it: ISpot always has been a true measurement company, while VideoAmp is an ad tech company that got into the measurement business. The gulf between the companies is wide, though the ascendance of Liguori and Bradbury could help bridge the gap.
ISpot is offered as a currency by NBCU, Paramount and Amazon, but it doesn’t have the scope of currency availability that VideoAmp or Comscore do at this point. That’s in part, according to one person familiar with the matter, due to being more conservative about picking up the cost of integrating with network first-party data servers.
ISpot’s moves over the past year, including hiring longtime outcomes measurement researcher Leslie Wood as chief research officer, have focused the company increasingly on streaming, advanced auudiences and outcomes. That makes iSpot a meaningful currency contender for the future, even if, as many suspect, Nielsen is never knocked from its dominant standing in linear TV measurement.
The oldest of the existing TV measurement challengers is still in the game, but often falls outside the conversation from network and agency executives about primary challengers to Nielsen today in national measurement.
True, Comscore was one of three players to receive conditional certification from the JIC for currency measurement. But it’s involved in relatively few national deals at this point. Comscore overall revenue was down, as was national TV revenue, in the most recently reported quarter ending Oct. 31. But local TV measurement revenue was up double digits, and that’s the portion of the TV market where Comscore is a more meaningful competitor to Nielsen, which has yet to regain MRC accreditation for its local measurement after losing it in 2021.
Comscore is offered as a currency by Paramount, Fox, Disney Advertising, TelevisaUnivision and a host of local TV operators, including NBCU’s owned stations. And it’s ahead of VideoAmp and iSpot in getting MRC accreditation for national TV measurement, which could come this month. That accreditation would cover measurement of content based on 15-minute average ratings, but not ads or individual minutes.
Comscore long has competed in digital measurement against Nielsen and multiple players, and in TV with Nielsen and the other challengers, CEO Jon Carpenter pointed out in an interview. But he sees local TV measurement shaping up as a “two-horse race” with Nielsen, possibly with “room for three.”
But it also has strength in advanced audiences and connected TV that will make Comscore a growing presence, Carpenter said. “All of that positions us really well to be right in the mix,” he said.
Unlike his predecessor, Bill Livek, Carpenter expressed openness to adding what competitors Nielsen, VideoAmp and iSpot long have had -- a panel to calibrate its big data input from set-top boxes or smart TVs. Samba TV’s decision to back a collaboration with HyphaMetrics to back an industry panel could end up part of Comscore’s approach ultimately too after it gets up and running next year.
Technically, Samba TV isn’t out to grab share as a currency player, though it remains very much in the game as a component used in measuring advanced audiences and outcomes. Samba has 3 million opt-in users of its TVs in the U.S. and millions more globally as a base for what it bills as “currency grade” measurement. But its aim is to make that data available to other competitors in the marketplace rather than serve as a currency in its own right, according to Ashwin Navin, CEO and founder.
In launching a partnership earlier this year with HyphaMetrics to create a Nielsen alternative panel, the company also helped give the U.S. industry something that has eluded it up to now—a panel to help big data sets better represent audiences and estimate who and how many people in households are watching.
Samba’s highest-profile network deal to date is with Disney Advertising. But, including through its partnership with HyphaMetrics, it could become part of the measurement solution for others in the industry.
With its 5,000-household panel of people whose TVs are outfitted with equipment to monitor who in a household is watching and if they’re really viewing the screen, TVision is a key component at this point for VideoAmp and iSpot.tv. The latter also has a major investment that gives it exclusive access to some streaming content and ad data.
Originally TVision was set up only to track attention to video. That the same panel could also be useful in helping big data measurement firms calibrate their data wasn’t lost on VideoAmp and iSpot.
Providing support to Nielsen’s rivals has proved costly to IiSpot in the form of four patent lawsuits by Nielsen. One has been dismissed, and a recent U.S. Patent and Trademark Office appellate ruling suggests another Nielsen patent will be invalidated. But the litigation has weighed on TVision, leading to a layoff of 25% of staff this year.
Nielsen also has gone after TVision with provisions in new contracts forcing networks to pay Nielsen extra if they want to use TVision’s attention metrics, according to an antitrust counterclaim by TVision.
VideoAmp also has used HyphaMetrics to help shape its big data TV measurement, which in turn has led to three Nielsen patent lawsuits. So far, the HyphaMetrics lawsuits appear to be going better for the defendant than those against TVision. And they cover a shorter period of alleged infringement, meaning less exposure should HyphaMetrics lose.
At any rate, that wasn’t enough to scare off Samba TV, itself a survivor of past Nielsen patent infringement litigation.
HyphaMetrics can create panels at a lower cost than others, because its technology, which collects viewing data from panelists passively, doesn’t require as much technology investment or outside ad catalogs. It also measures viewership across a variety of devices, including among the growing number of Gen Z households that stream content but don’t have TVs.
While HyphaMetrics is forging ahead with its Nielsen-alternative panel, Kantar Media has been in extended talks with the Association of National Advertisers about setting up a panel of similar size to back that group’s long-in-development cross-media measurement pilots with Comscore and VideoAmp.
Last month, Manish Bhatia, chief growth and product officer of Kantar Media, who had been a major player in talks with the ANA and Video Advertising Bureau about setting up a TV measurement panel in the U.S., left the company. A Kantar spokesman and Bhatia confirmed the move but otherwise declined to comment.
Now, however, people familiar with the matter say the ANA is more likely to turn to Kantar to provide the virtual identity spine behind its Cross Media Measurement pilots, and to the Samba and Hyphametrics for the panel. Representatives of the ANA and Kantar declined to comment.
Should Kantar enter the U.S. with a TV measurement market in any form, that’s a potentially worrisome new competitor for Nielsen, given that Kantar is its primary TV measurement rival globally. It would become a candidate to boost its footprint in the market by rolling up VideoAmp, iSpot or both.
Of course, that’s a lot of speculation about a very fluid situation. Kantar has declined to comment on speculation that the company’s principal owner, Bain Capital, has interest in spinning off Kantar Media, possibly to buy out minority owner WPP’s 40% stake in the whole company.
Another Nielsen global competitor in TV measurement is quietly also a competitor in a key piece of the U.S. market. The Ipsos Screenwise panel operates in households that have Android devices to measure co-viewing, or the number of people in a household simultaneously watching YouTube connected TV content. Nielsen does this also, but YouTube began trading on its own co-viewing data this year with Nielsen remaining an option for buyers that prefer to use it. It’s only one part of the market, but YouTube is the biggest single ad-supported streaming network, so it’s a pretty big part.
The Ipsos Screenwise panel is only one aspect (the third-party piece) of a YouTube co-viewing measurement solution that also includes first-party survey data, according to a spokeswoman for the Google unit. Former YouTube executive Tony Fagan, now chief technology officer of VideoAmp, set up the Ipsos Screenwise panel and co-viewing solution prior to joining VideoAmp in 2021, according to people familiar with the matter.
