NEW YORK—A new VAB survey has found that advertisers and TV companies explored, adopted and invested in new measurement tools in record numbers during the 2022-2023 upfronts.

The findings highlight just how serious advertisers and TV companies are in their pursuit of better measurement tools. 

Eighty five percent of respondents increased their use or investment in the new measurement providers, according to the VAB survey. In addition, 175 advertisers were engaged with TV publishers in the use or testing of new measurement solutions during the upfronts. 

The VAB Measurement Innovation Task Force, which conducted the survey, reported that findings represent 90% of the TV ad revenue in the market, inclusive of the major TV publishers and a majority of the single networks. 

"While many pre-Upfront indicators pointed to a potential win for marketers that were ready to dive into TV measurement options providing new highs in counting all ad screens and better calculating cross-platform dynamics, we also heard marketers ask for a post-Upfront usage tally of measurement optionality," said Sean Cunningham, president and CEO, VAB. "Those tallied results reveal an ad marketplace embracing newer measurement options with escalating urgency, and the increased competition in all-screens/ cross-platform TV measurement is shaping up to be a bigger realized win for marketers searching for business and brand growth—sooner rather than later."

Key findings of the survey include: 

• Eighty five percent of respondents increased their use or investment in the number of measurement providers.
• Over one-quarter of respondents said that between 25% to 49% of their Upfront advertisers will actively use or test a measurement option other than Nielsen.
• One hundred and seventy-five advertisers were engaged with TV publishers in the use or testing of new measurement solutions.
• The top categories for new measurement solutions were automotive, consumer packaged goods, telecommunications, quick service restaurants and pharmaceuticals.
• Among multiscreen TV formats, new measurement solutions were most frequently applied to linear TV, streaming, connected TV and over-the-top.

NEW YORK— Nielsen Holdings announced today that it has agreed to be acquired by a private equity consortium led by Evergreen Coast Capital Corp., an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management and Brookfield Business Partners for $28 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $16 billion, including the assumption of debt.

The deal comes a week after Nielsen turned down a $9 billion offer by the same group, saying that the proposed transaction “significantly undervalues” the company’s worth.

Nielsen has also come under increasing pressure to evolve its media measurement platform to improve its monitoring of the increasing array of media streaming options. In one of the most public demonstrations of the lack of confidence in the company, several companies and networks owned by Byron Allen filed a civil suit earlier this month against Neilsen. alleging that its “outdated and unreliable” ratings significantly undercounted audiences, particularly for smaller networks, and that Nielsen's inaccurate audience measurement cost media companies “billions of dollars.”   

In January, the Video Advertising Bureau released a study that found Nielsen’s undercounting of audiences resulted in major losses for TV broadcasters totaling upwards of $700 million during a 16 month period. In response, Nielsen said that after reviewing VAB’s data that “while we acknowledge the understatement in a portion of our National out-of-home audiences, we stand by our prior statements that the magnitude of the issue was very small for the majority of telecasts.”

The study was released just months after the Media Rating Council (MRC) removed its accreditation of Nielsen’s national and local TV measurement services. The company has made several efforts to improve its image by expanding coverage offered by Nielsen Media Impact (NMI), its national media planning and optimization solution, to include streaming data from connected television sets (CTV) as well as  launching “Streaming Signals,” what the company calls a “first of its kind” solution for connected TV (CTV) operators and advertisers to better understand who is watching a show within the household. 

The Nielsen Board of Directors voted unanimously to support the acquisition proposal, which represents a 10% premium over the consortium's previous proposal and a 60% premium over Nielsen's unaffected stock price as of March 11, 2022, the last trading day before market speculation regarding a potential transaction. 

"After a thorough assessment, the Board determined that this transaction represents an attractive outcome for our shareholders by providing a cash takeout at a substantial premium, while supporting Nielsen's commitment to our clients, employees and stakeholders. The Consortium sees the full potential of Nielsen's leadership position in the media industry and the unique value we deliver for our clients worldwide," said James A. Attwood, Chairperson of Nielsen's Board of Directors.

"After months of deep market analysis, industry diligence and management reviews, we are firmly convinced that Nielsen will continue to be the gold standard for audience measurement as it executes on the Nielsen ONE roadmap," said Managing Partner Jesse Cohn and Senior Portfolio Manager Marc Steinberg on behalf of Evergreen and Elliott. "Having first invested in Nielsen nearly four years ago, we have a unique appreciation for the Company's ongoing relevance to the global, digital-first media ecosystem. Today's outcome represents a significant win for Nielsen's shareholders and for the business itself, as our multibillion-dollar investment will help Nielsen reinforce its transformation at this critical inflection point. We are pleased to partner with David and the existing management team to lead Nielsen after the transaction is completed."

"Nielsen is deeply embedded in the media ecosystem and a trusted service provider to its customers. As a private company, Nielsen will be even better positioned to deliver the best measures of consumers' rapidly changing behaviors across all channels and platforms," commented Dave Gregory, Managing Partner, Brookfield Business Partners. "We are pleased to invest in this iconic company and help lead the industry into the next generation of audience measurement."

The Consortium has secured fully committed debt and equity financing, including an approximately $5.7 billion equity commitment from the consortium consisting of Evergreen and Brookfield. 

The transaction is subject to approval by Nielsen shareholders, regulatory approvals, and is also subject to UK court approval. If the closing conditions are met, the transaction is expected to close in the second half of 2022.

The transaction agreement provides for a "go-shop" period, during which Nielsen – with the assistance of its financial advisors, J.P. Morgan and Allen & Company, and its legal advisors – will actively solicit, evaluate and potentially enter into negotiations with parties that offer alternative acquisition proposals. The go-shop period expires 45 days after Nielsen's entry into the transaction agreement. 

Following that period, Nielsen will be permitted to continue discussions and enter into or recommend a transaction with any person or group that submitted a qualifying proposal during the 45-day period, if the Board determines the proposal is superior to this transaction. A competing bidder who makes a superior proposal would bear a $102 million (1% percent of equity value) termination fee that is payable by Nielsen if Nielsen terminates the transaction agreement with the consortium to accept such superior proposal.

RESTON, Va.—Comscore has announced that American Spirit Media has renewed Comscore's Local currency services across its eight television markets.

With this new agreement, Comscore will be providing currency measurement data and services, including Comscore's Advanced Automotive and Political segments, to all of ASM's television stations, which are located in Toledo Ohio, Jackson Miss., Columbus Ga., Wichita Falls and Lawton Texas/Okla., Lake Charles La., and Wilmington N.C.

"American Spirit Media embodies innovation and leadership in all facets of our business, but nowhere more than in our sales organizations," said Tom Henson, ASM's president and CEO.  "With Comscore's audience insights, we are empowered to sell our inventory with the confidence that we can deliver on our audience delivery commitments to advertisers – Comscore data allow us to deliver what we sell."

LOS ANGELES—The software and data company, VideoAmp, has announced $275 million in Series F funding at a $1.4 billion valuation. 

The new funding will fully fund an accelerated roll-out of its platform usage as a media currency for the entire advertising ecosystem for traditional TV, streaming video, and digital platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube, the company said. 

The latest round of investors includes The Spruce House Partnership, D1 Capital Partners, Tiger Global, EPIQ Capital Group and Ankona Capital Partners. The investment follows an exponential revenue CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of over 100% for the last five years, VideoAmp said. 

“While the ability to consume content on any device at any time is great for the consumer, the legacy media measurement and currency systems powering these services are fragmented, riddled with complexity and inaccurate,” said Ross McCray, founder and CEO. “These systems are providing an incomplete and siloed view of audiences and creating massive inefficiencies for the industry. We are thrilled to complete this round of fundraising and partner with these world class investors to properly scale our platform to create a healthier ecosystem for everyone.”

VideoAmp will also use the new capital to scale its enterprise sales, engineering, data science and client success teams.

The funding round comes on the heels of several key announcements and milestones for the company. 

VideoAmp recently kicked-off currency pilots with six major advertising holding companies, while also announcing a partnership with ViacomCBS who will now use VideoAmp as an alternative currency for TV guarantees. 

Additionally, VideoAmp bolstered its social and walled-garden solutions, announcing their status as an official Facebook Multi-Touch Attribution Measurement Partner. Over the course of 2021, the company has also brought on a roster of industry-revered veterans for VideoAmp’s most critical C-Suite positions.

“After speaking with dozens of brands, agencies, and media outlets who are actively engaged in the VideoAmp ecosystem, it was clear to us that the status quo of media measurement and currency is broken and needs to evolve given the size of the market and the technological capabilities available today,” said Ben Stein, managing partner of Spruce House. “The world class team that Ross assembled has a generational opportunity to drive the advertising ecosystem towards a more accurate, accountable, and privacy-centric future through their self-service tools and software.”

NEW YORK—With streaming accounting for an ever growing share of TV viewing, Nielsen has relaunched its streaming measurement suite of products, bringing them together in a single measurement suite that includes ad-supported and subscription-based service models across content, ads and platforms. 

The move comes at a time when Nielsen is reporting that U.S. consumers are now spending more than a quarter of their total TV time engaging with streaming content. 

"By combining our streaming solutions under one banner, Nielsen is providing the industry with a single destination to understand streaming audiences and how they are engaging with content, allowing media buyers and sellers to make the best decisions around ad strategies," said Deirdre Thomas, managing director, U.S. audience measurement product strategy. "With this comprehensive suite of streaming measurement solutions, content creators, platforms, studios and advertisers will have an unprecedented view of who is streaming, what they're watching, which platforms consumers are gravitating to and how much time they are spending with streaming content."

Nielsen also noted that in the last year, it has significantly increased its ability to measure the streaming TV landscape by more than tripling the sample size of Streaming Meter Homes. 

It has now added connected TV ad inventory from Samsung and Vizio to its existing roster of measurement clients that include Roku, Amazon and Hulu, among others. 

This means that Nielsen will measure 75% of CTV media spend and 87% of total video digital spend across computer, mobile and connected TV. 

As part of this relaunch, the company will rebrand two of its streaming measurement solutions to better align with its transition to Nielsen ONE, the company's cross-media solution, Nielsen explained. 

It has changed the name of its Streaming Video Ratings product to Nielsen Streaming Platform Ratings. 

Nielsen Streaming Platform ratings will still provide a macro view of streaming activity across major subscription and ad-supported streaming services, the company said. 

Since launching in January 2021, Nielsen has more than tripled the sample size of Streaming Meter Homes and has also increased the number of platforms that are broken out distinctly to the top 17 platforms/apps, representing about 85% of the entire streaming market. 

It has also rebranded Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings as Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings. Currently Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings is used by seven of the top 10 TV network groups and 14 of the top agencies. The product delivers granular views of program and episode-level measurement on four out of the top five streaming platforms. 

Finally Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings will be part of Nielsen's Streaming Suite and will continue to deliver audience measurement for streaming ads on CTV devices. . 

NEW YORK— In what the Association of National Advertisers has described as a key step forward in its efforts to improve cross media measurement, the ANA has announced that it is partnering with Comscore to conduct a pilot test to assess Virtual People ID. 

“Cross-media measurement has been a longstanding yet elusive goal for the marketing industry,” said ANA EVP Bill Tucker.“This partnership with Comscore and the test we are conducting represents a significant step toward realizing our objective.”

Tucker added that the ANA expects to be in the market with a Cross-Media Measurement pilot late in the upcoming fourth quarter of this year or in the first quarter of 2022.

The test comes at a time when there has been widespread criticism of the way viewing is measured across platforms. 

The ANA’s Cross-Media Measurement (CMM) initiative is a marketer-led industry measurement initiative that is working to overcome those problems.  

As part of that effort, the CMM is launching a series of component pilot tests. 

The pilot test of the Virtual People ID (VID) methodology will assess its privacy-preserving reach and frequency measurements for television and digital media audiences. 

The VID approach assigns synthetic identifiers to media audience behavior without needing to use digital identifiers such as third-party cookies or mobile ad IDs. 

The ANA and Comscore will test an approach to the VID methodology that will include television, accounting for co-viewing as well as digital/TV deduplication.

The pilot test announced today with Comscore will help determine how best to structure a Virtual People ID (VID) process for television and cross-media executions and how to validate VID for U.S. media outlets, the ANA reported. 

“It is a privilege to partner with the ANA to help advance cross-media measurement by joining TV and digital data in an innovative and effective manner.” said Bill Livek, CEO and executive vice chairman at Comscore. “We’re excited to begin validating the VID methodology, including television, using Comscore’s set-top box and connected TV data sets.”

NEW YORK & IRVING, Texas—Nielsen and Nexstar Media have come to terms on a multi-year agreement that will see Nielsen provide measurement services for all of Nexstar’s broadcast and cable entities, as well as national ratings for cable entertainment Network WGN America and digital network, Antenna TV.

Per the agreement, Nielsen will provide its Scarborough Qualitative Service to Nexstar, offering insights on consumers’ product consumption habits, demographics, lifestyles and media usage. It also includes cross-platform solutions and digital measurement services like Digital TV Ratings, Digital Content Ratings and Digital Ad Ratings. Supplementary support services from Nielsen will also be provided, including Rhiza, Grabix, Prime Lingo and Country Coverage to all Nexstar local markets and its unwired universe.

“Nielsen’s ability to provide unified audience measurement across the entire 115 market Nexstar U.S. television household footprint will further support our company-wide commitment to best serve local and national advertising clients with verified viewing and consumption data,” said Timothy Busch, president of Nexstar Broadcasting.

Busch continued: “The combination of Nielsen’s ratings data and qualitative products will provide additional insight into consumer viewing across all screens, enabling Nexstar to serve advertisers with the solutions required to seamlessly connect linear and digital behavior and help business drive growth.”