It's been an unprecedented year for measurement—particularly TV measurement—as rivals kept battling to break Nielsen’s near-monopoly.

The U.S. got its first Joint Industry Committee, backed by TV networks and agencies, that gave Nielsen rivals conditional certification. Yet not much has changed, as the industry mostly kept trading on Nielsen’s legacy panel data and demos and appears headed to repeat that again next year. But big platforms YouTube and Amazon Prime made some efforts toward using their own data to shape their viewership numbers. Meanwhile, leadership changed at Nielsen as growing financial pressures led to layoffs there and at VideoAmp.

Here are some of the highlights.

Joint Industry Committee forms

TV networks and ad agency executives came together to form a Joint Industry Committee in January that would allow for the sharing of connected TV server data and certify measurement companies to measure audiences and target ads from it. Key holdouts among connected TV players include YouTube, Amazon and Netflix, though the invitation remains open. Nielsen competitors signed up to be evaluated, and three of them—Comscore, iSpot.tv and VideoAmp—got conditional certification. Nielsen didn’t participate, so it didn’t. Whether that will ultimately favor Nielsen rivals by giving them access to networks’ first-party connected TV viewing data that Nielsen lacks remains to be seen.

Nielsen gets MRC accreditation back

Nielsen got its Media Rating Council accreditation for national TV ratings back after a 19-month hiatus. With or without MRC accreditation, Nielsen’s panel-based ratings were still the dominant currency in TV deals for the 2022-23 upfront, even though loss of the badge put similarly unaccredited rivals Comscore, iSpot.tv and VideoAmp on a similar footing. Restoration of Nielsen’s ratings just before the 2023-24 upfront opened the door for another move.

Nielsen backtracks on big data

Prior to having its MRC accreditation restored, Nielsen aimed to have its big data set from set-top boxes and smart TVs, modeled using its panel, be the currency of choice in the 2023-24 upfront. Following the MRC restoration—and pushback from agencies that hadn’t seen enough of the new data quickly enough to plan—Nielsen backtracked to trading on panel. But Nielsen left open the option of trading on big data for parties that opted in and reiterated that in August, even as relatively few deals were written on the new currency, according to people familiar with the matter. Nielsen’s panel data remains the only MRC-accredited currency for TV.

Nielsen backtracks on big data—again

Nielsen’s long-stated plan was to, by 2024, sunset C3 (measuring commercials viewed live and within three days of playback) and C7 (played back over seven days) TV ratings, used for well over a decade, based on average commercial minutes (ACM) across programs, and have the industry trade on its big data, including impressions on individual commercial minutes (ICM). But by October, the company still didn’t have MRC accreditation for its big data product. So it backtracked on those plans.

Nielsen will offer ICM based on big data modeled using its panel measurement as a “preferred” currency next year. But it will still support trading on C3 and C7 using panel only or big data plus panel. Buyers and sellers will get to sort out which they want to trade on. Or they could select big data options from Comscore, iSpot.tv and VideoAmp in a sort of currency buffet. Some buyers expect the old C3 and C7 panel data to predominate once again next year, as things stay the same despite all the talk.

Byron Allen’s exclusive deal with VideoAmp

While most networks have made VideoAmp a currency option for buyers, Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group took that one step further by signing a 10-year deal making VideoAmp its only option for trading, including on The Weather Channel. Allen had previously sued Nielsen twice. By October, TWC announced it had completed the upfront trading only on VideoAmp currency, dispelling doubts that some buyers might resist. The move put a small dent in Nielsen’s near-monopoly, adding hundreds of additional clients to those using VideoAmp at least for a small part of their buy and helping move the Nielsen rival toward a run rate of $2 billion in U.S. TV currency bookings. But that still gives VideoAmp less than a 3% share in a U.S. TV market of more than $80 billion.

Nielsen and VideoAmp announce layoffs

As competition for TV currency measurement heated up, leading players slimmed down. Nielsen announced in September it would lay off 9% of its staff globally. Almost simultaneously, VideoAmp announced it would lay off 10% of its much smaller workforce.

Kenny out, Rao in as Nielsen CEO

Less than a week after layoffs were announced, David Kenny, who as Nielsen’s CEO saw tensions with the company’s biggest-spending clients rise, announced he was leaving, to be succeded by Karthik Rao, who previously was CEO of the biggest piece of the company, Nielsen Media.

Kelly Abcarian exits NBCU

Kelly Abcarian, the former Nielsen executive who as executive VP of measurement and impact at NBCU was the industry’s most vocal backer of Nielsen currency alternatives and launched an extensive program to find and evaluate them, was ushered out of the network in November in a surprise move. She had a major impact, but fell victim to leadership changes above her, including the previously announced departure of NBCU President and Chief Business Officer Krishan Bhatia, according to people familiar with the matter.

YouTube measures itself

Abcarian was, among other things, a frequent critic of YouTube and what she perceived as the Google unit’s efforts to lower the bar in video measurement to the base 2-second viewable impression, to help build its edge on conventional TV networks. She also criticized YouTube for seeking to grade its own homework by using its own survey-based measurement of co-viewing, or how many people in a household are watching the big screen at once. In April, YouTube initially said that its own measure was only for planning purposes. Then, in August, it said it would trade on its own co-viewing data.

Amazon’s first-party data Hail Mary

Amazon Prime every week last year published its own “Thursday Night Football” viewership data shaped by its server logs alongside smaller numbers measured by Nielsen’s panel. Then in August, just before football season began, Amazon made a Hail Mary pass at bringing those numbers much closer together, winning agreement by Nielsen to incorporate summaries of its server data. The attempt got batted down in the end zone.

The Video Advertising Bureau CEO Sean Cunningham argued with Nielsen’s Rao in dueling correspondence over whether rival TV networks had been given an equal chance to shape Nielsen’s numbers with their data. The MRC denied a proposal to modify Nielsen’s existing accreditation to cover the new methodology. MRC members wouldn’t approve the move. And Nielsen said it wouldn’t try to force the issue, though it continues to try to get MRC approval.

Amazon, for its part, also began offering iSpot.tv and VideoAmp as shadow currencies on “Thursday Night Football” this year and tradeable currencies next year. And all three will be available as options for its new ad-supported tier next year.

VAB vs. ANA

The VAB and Association of National Advertisers had been in talks for more than 18 months about jointly funding an alternative panel (to Nielsen) to calibrate big data measurement of video audiences. Then it all came crashing to a halt as the VAB backed out, citing concerns of undue influence from big digital platforms Google and Meta over the process. The big digital platforms had entered the discussions as another group of potential funders for an effort that could cost tens of millions of dollars.

The panel is incorporated as an essential component to ANA cross-media measurement pilots with Comscore and VideoAmp that have been in development for well over two years. But there’s still no alternative panel, and still no pilot launch, and whether that will happen in 2024 remains to be seen. Meanwhile, measurement companies have been in talks with the VAB’s network members about funding a separate effort, according to people familiar with the matter.

iSpot acquires 605

In what could be the beginning of more consolidation among Nielsen rivals, iSpot.tv acquired 605. While iSpot continues to contend for currency status, the 605 move, combined with hiring Leslie Wood as chief research officer, who has an extensive background in outcomes research but not currency measurement, signaled a growing focus on targeting advanced audiences and outcomes measurement.