NEW YORK—Comcast Advertising and Comscore have announced a deal that will allow Comscore users to access enhanced cross-platform signal validation using Comcast Advertising’s Signal Authentication offering.

Comcast Advertising’s Signal Authentication service offers a privacy-first solution across close to 32 million U.S. households. The two companies said that it delivers a new standard of accuracy and understanding of reach and frequency as well as attribution measurement across linear and streaming TV. 

The service, which was announced earlier this year, delivers a standard of accuracy that has not been available in the market until now, the companies said. 

“Signal loss and data quality are greatly impacting the ability for advertisers to understand how they are reaching their target audiences, and how their media campaigns are performing,” said Carmela Fournier, vice president and GM, Data, Comcast Advertising. “Since Comcast Advertising’s solution is based on deterministic household signals across millions of households, we are able to offer reliable, privacy-forward signal authentication at scale. We’re excited to further our partnership with Comscore as they become one of the first measurement companies to tap into this service to provide clients a better understanding of their campaign performance and drive improved business results, while upholding the highest standards of consumer privacy.”

With this new component of the partnership, Comscore clients can utilize the Comcast Advertising solution to more confidently reach audiences and measure ad performance across linear and streaming campaigns. With a stronger understanding of media effectiveness and knowing which ads drove which actions, clients will also be able to improve budget allocation across media properties and optimize future campaigns, the companies said. 

“Our clients are facing many challenges, especially in understanding the true impact of their advertising due to signal loss and privacy regulations,” said Steve Bagdasarian, chief commercial officer, Comscore. “We’re excited to expand our long-time partnership with Comcast Advertising to enhance identity resolution capabilities. This will give our clients increased confidence in cross-platform measurement and attribution, helping them create more informed media strategies to reach their most valuable audiences.”

More information is available at http://comcastadvertising.com/. 

RESTON Va.—Comscore has announced that it is speeding up the delivery of TV viewing data to more local markets by expanding the availability of 48-hour TV measurement to all 210 local U.S. media markets.  

The move comes as part of an expansion of “Pulse” within its TV measurement solution. Pulse provides agencies, brands and media companies with 48-hour TV measurement nationally and in all 210 U.S. media markets.

Comscore called the upgrade a first and said only Comscore delivers 48-hour post air data in all 210 markets.

Faster data delivery will allow the media industry to perform in-flight optimization for all campaigns for brands, agencies and sell-side partners, the company said. 

“Our data with Pulse is an industry first and highlights Comscore’s investment and innovation in television consumption measurement. Our measurement is now the only solution to report viewing in 48 hours for every local TV market, and nationally with the same single source methodology regardless of the market,” said Comscore chief revenue officer Carol Hinnant. “This advancement allows the industry to make faster programming and advertising decisions with confidence.”  

Available via Comscore’s product offering, API feed and third-party processors, Pulse offers the enhanced ability to optimize campaigns with data that provides 93% predictability. 

The launch of Comscore’s expanded Pulse capability at the national level and across all U.S. local media markets follows the recent selection of Comscore by Warner Bros. Discovery as a preferred currency provider for this year’s TV Upfront. The expanded partnership will tap Comscore’s linear and cross-platform audience measurement abilities to enable alternative currencies for national advertisers transacting across its linear inventory and data-driven advanced advertising solutions.

RESTON, Va.—Comscore has announced that Horizon Media is testing Comscore’s local TV measurement solution as a new form of currency for 2023 planning and buying.

The tests come in the wake of Horizon Media’s commitment to transact up to 15% of Upfronts with alternative currencies. Horizon Media is the largest U.S. media agency according to AdAge.

The assessment will be conducted in two phases, the companies said. The first will be a data analysis and discovery phase that will test the rigor, stability, and viability of Comscore data as an alternative local currency.

In the second phase, which will be an in-market, live test, Horizon will assess outcomes based on client/brand objectives and needs from test plans and buys. This phase of the test will also enable Horizon to test the technical and commercial viability of further use of Comscore local products.

The companies said that Comscore was the only local TV measurement solution selected to participate in the test, following a comprehensive RFP process.

“Horizon is looking to evaluate Comscore on various elements of the ‘currency’ process,” said Eric Blankfein, executive vice president of CORD at Horizon. "This will range from the efficacy of the planning data and tools to the stability and volatility of the data over time, as well as its usability within the buying process with Strata/Freewheel. We will also be assessing the ability to seamlessly onboard 1st and 3rd party targeting. We are encouraged by Comscore’s position on all these elements, enough so to give them the balance of 2022 to test as an alternative local video currency.”

“As brands continue to invest in local media, due to its consumer relevancy and proximity to point of purchase, the need for better reliable measurement has grown with it,” added Carol Hinnant, chief revenue officer, Comscore. “We have worked through a lengthy RFP process with Horizon to substantiate that Comscore is the optimal provider for local currency. Comscore has been the only true local-market currency against the incumbent for more than ten years and we are proud to count Horizon among those looking for a more reliable and innovative alternative. We look forward to continuing through the testing phase and working with Horizon as we continue to advance innovation in local TV measurement.”

IRVING, Texas—The cost for advertising during popular TV shows on Nexstar stations will no longer be based on traditional TV ratings, but rather will be determined on a cost-per-impression model, Nexstar Media Group announced.

Having developed a new method with Comscore that provides audience measurement metrics across Nexstar’s broadcast, digital, mobile and streaming video platforms, advertisers will be able to use these impressions to garner more qualitative data about the audience, more accurately reflect the total number of people watching and are more comparable to metrics used by non-broadcast platforms.

Among the viewer details that this new system is able to reveal, per Nexstar, are household incomes, shopping preferences and brand loyalties. Advertisers can utilize this data to target their spending for maximum impact, including reaching customers as they prepare to make a purchase, Nexstar says.

“This transition is an important step in modernizing the way buyers and sellers conduct business to better reflect the trends in video-consumption and to ensure that all viewing audiences are being accurately counted,” said Steve Walsh, executive vice president of local services at Comscore.

“Our sales force will be able to talk to all advertisers—big or small, national or local—in an informed, fact-based manner about maximizing the reach and effectiveness of their spending across every available media channel and every viewer will be counted, no matter where or when they watch,” said Tim Busch, president of Nexstar Broadcasting. “In addition, advertisers will be able to universally target their customers regardless of the distribution platform and monitor the results through unduplicated audience measurement.”

Streaming of virtual MPVD services accounted for about 10% of all OTT usage in the U.S. in April, according to a new report from comScore. This represents a 53% increase year over year in vMVPD usage, the research company noted. With operators including AT&T reporting swift growth of vMVPD services—the company’s DirecTV Now platform added 342,000 customers in the second quarter, for instance—the total U.S. vMVPD customer base grew 58% year over year to 4.99 million as of April, comScore added.

Notably, streaming pay TV services seem to be a competitive threat to Netflix, Hulu and other non-live OTT services. According to comScore, among households that have adopted OTT, nearly half of time spent on OTT services is devoted to vMVPDs.

[Read: Pay-TV Continues To Be Decimated By Cordcutting Trend]

ComScore also said that households with a vMVPD service spent, on average, 128 hours a month streaming OTT content,

Virtual MVPD households also tend to subscribe to more OTT services—an average of 6.1 services vs. the 3.8 for OTT households that don’t have a vMVPD subscription.

Susan Engleson, senior director of emerging products for comScore, predicted that vMVPD subscribers will reach 7 million by the end of 2018.

“Given the competitive price points and low barriers to entry for consumers (no installation required), I anticipate that we will continue to see significant growth in virtual MVPDs in the years to come,” she said. “Both Hulu and YouTube launched their services in 2017, so they are still in their infancy and have significant growth potential. In fact, it’s likely both services will well exceed one million users each this year.”

RESTON, VA.--In the wake of industry reports about a 2017 loss of $281 million, comScore—which measures audiences, brands, and consumer behavior across media platforms—is making significant personnel changes, getting its financial house in order, and refocusing on core technologies, assets and services.

According to Broadcasting & Cable, the company’s 2017 loss was revealed followed a financial restatement process. That loss is double the $117.2 million loss in 2016 and $78.2 million loss in 2016. However, comScore reported that its 2017 revenue was $193.6 million, up from $173.1 million in 2016, and $11.9 million in 2015. In 2016, the company acquired Rentrak, which provided data on TV and movies, in an effort to challenge Nielsen.

[Read: ComScore And Rentrak To Merge]

Industry veteran Bryan Wiener, who has been a member of the company’s board of directors, becomes the new Chief Executive Officer, a position that’s been vacant since Gian Fulgoni’s November 2017 retirement. Wiener brings over 25 years experience in the advertising, media and technology industry, including his previous position as CEO of 360i, an ad agency whose stated mission is helping brands capitalize on change, leverage data expertise, and employ innovative technology to drive measurable impact across all media platforms.

comScore also added another industry veteran, Rob Norman, to its board of directors, and appointed current board member Brent Rosenthal to the post of non-executive chair. Norman has a long career as an advisor to media and marketing companies, including as former chief digital officer of WPP’s GroupM, a large media investment group.

As a media measurement company, comScore’s data footprint combines proprietary digital, TV and movie intelligence with vast demographic details to quantify consumers' multiscreen behavior to help media companies reach and monetize their audiences more effectively.

RESTON, VA.—A quartet of stations owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group have signed an expansion agreement with comScore to receive local measurement currency.

The four stations that were included in the agreement are WSBT (CBS) South Bend, Ind.; KUQI (Fox) Corpus Christi, Texas; KHGI (ABC) in Lincoln, Neb.; and KFXL (Fox) in Hastings-Kearney, Neb.

The services provided by comScore include measurements for audiences, brands and consumer behavior. With these new stations, comScore now works with 704 stations nationwide.

RESTON, VA. & ENGLEWOOD, COLO.—Dish Network and comScore have announced a new long-term deal that will renew the integration of the pay TV provider’s viewing data information with comScore’s TV measurement service. This comes after the January announcement that comScore and Rentrak would merge; Dish had been a customer of Rentrak for the past 10 years, according to comScore’s press release.

As part of the agreement, comScore will provide Dish with an internal system to make programming, marketing and advertising decisions. The agreement will also include comScore helping measure Dish addressable campaigns.

A cross-platform measurement company, comScore measures audiences, brands and consumer behavior.