NEW YORK—If you think the ubiquitous television commercials for pharmaceuticals are already too long, a new report from the Video Advertising Bureau confirms your suspicions.

According to the report, pharmaceutical companies have increased their spending on TV ads, which are, in turn, getting longer in duration following an Food and Drug Administration crackdown on deceptive advertising imposed last September.

“In September 2025, the FDA launched a crackdown on deceptive drug advertising with an initial issuance of over 65 ‘warning’ letters to pharma companies, 96% of which were targeted towards digital and social platforms. What came from that was a regulatory clarity that spurred increased investment across multiscreen TV platforms,” said Jason Wiese, executive vice president, strategic insights and measurement. “To help marketers better understand this current landscape, VAB conducted an analysis of recent TV investment and ad duration trends, with our findings detailed in the report.”

The report noted that the marketplace clarity provided by the FDA’s actions spurred significantly increased investment across multiscreen TV platforms in the six months immediately following the crackdown, with an 11% increase in pharmaceutical advertisers and a 53% year-over-year increase in total TV spend.

There has also been a noticeable shift towards longer pharma Rx ad unit durations. For instance, between first-quarter 2024 and Q1 2026, the share of pharma Rx ad units longer than 30 seconds increased from 74% to 82%. Further, the share of 60-second TV ad units in the pharma Rx category increased from 56% to 63% between August 2025 and March 2026.

In 1Q ’26, the highest share of longer-length TV ads came from pharmaceutical categories focused on serious and complex health conditions, including depression, HIV, tardive dyskinesia, bipolar disorder, cancer and diabetes.Rx brands are being more mindful of proactively adhering to advertising rules and regulations across multiscreen TV platforms as they present a fair balance between their product’s risks and benefits and include information regarding major side effects and considerations.

The full report—which includes in-depth data, charts and analysis spanning total TV and streaming, prime-time daypart, sports, news and entertainment genres, as well as pharma product categories—is available here.

NEW YORK—A new survey from Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) finds that TV news remains the most consumed, most trusted news source and that key consumer groups for advertisers are more likely to turn to TV rather than social media for breaking news.

The new report called “That’s The Way It Is: How TV News Provides Scale, Attention & Engagement For High-Value Audiences” explores viewership of TV news versus other media platforms among three key audiences valued by advertisers: adults 35-54, individuals in $100K+ households and full-time employed adults.

The report—based on findings from a December 2025 survey conducted in partnership with Dynata of 2,319 U.S. adults—found that about half of these audience cohorts — 52% of those aged 35-54, 46% individuals in households making more than $100,000 a year and 56% of full-time employed adults — are watching more TV news compared to the previous year.

They are also much more likely to go to TV news first over social media for breaking news coverage and updates on major news stories. TV news is also their top source by far for vital information that personally impacts their daily lives, like weather and traffic.

“Multiscreen TV news plays a central role in keeping influential audiences informed,” said Jason Wiese, executive vice president of strategic insights and measurement, VAB. “From breaking headlines and defining political moments to local community updates, multiscreen TV news keeps key audiences connected to the stories shaping their world. In a media environment filled with misinformation and noise, it continues to stand out for its quality, reliability, accuracy and integrity.”

“The results underscore the value of multiscreen TV news as a credible, brand-safe platform for reaching influential audiences at scale, especially in comparison with social platforms and technologies like AI,” added Wiese. “Across linear and streaming, multiscreen TV news offers advertisers an environment that pairs trust and attention with meaningful consumer engagement and action.”

The VAB researchers described the other key findings as follows:

• Viewers are more than twice as likely to have a higher opinion of the advertisers in local TV news. Additionally, high-income households and employed viewers are more than 2x more likely to buy from advertisers seen during national TV news.
• Collectively, households with an income of $100K+ are almost 13x more likely to trust TV news than social media platforms — with TV the most trusted news source as both local and national TV far outpace search, social media and AI across these audiences.
• Social media is seen as a far greater source of false information — with 46% of A35–54, 58% of HHI $100K+ and 50% of full-time employed adults saying it is the most likely to provide fake or misleading information, compared to 20%, 13% and 17% who say TV.
• TV offers a range of engaging political content throughout the election season, and that heightened viewer engagement increases the likelihood of buying from advertisers that are adjacent to political programming or political ads. In fact, high-income households are 114% more likely to buy from advertisers during a political debate or town hall.

The full report—which includes in-depth data, charts and analysis—here.

NEW YORK—As local stations, TV news outlets and networks ramp up their efforts to secure a larger share of what promises to be record political spending in the fall mid-term 2026 elections, the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) has released a new study that examines how effective political messaging is likely to be on various platforms.

The December 2025 survey based on findings conducted in partnership with Dynata of 2,319 U.S. adults examined behaviors and sentiments across five key voting and party affiliation groups, potential voters, non-voters, Republicans, Democrats and Independents. It also examined how viewers spend their time, what sources they trust most and how different TV contexts influence outcomes for political messaging.

Results, published as “The Lead Story: How Multiscreen TV Drives Cross-Partisan Engagement for Political Ad Campaigns” found that Americans overwhelmingly trust TV news over any other digital media source like search, social or AI. Collectively, potential voters are almost 9 times more likely to trust TV news than social media platforms, while 50% of total respondents rank AI lowest for trust.

In addition, the survey found that audiences turn to TV news sources to stay informed on political issues far more than any other platform. Further, voters are 60% more likely to use TV news to stay informed than they are social media, and twice as likely than non-voters to be pay-TV subscribers.

TV news is also the primary starting point for understanding current events or issues for voters, while social media is viewed as more supplemental. Moreover, voters are much more likely to watch TV news—with 61% typically watching local news and 57% typically watching national news, compared to 38% and 25% of non-voters, respectively.

Social media is far more likely than TV programs to be viewed as a source of fake or misleading information, as potential voters are almost 3x more likely to believe social media platforms are most likely to provide fake or misleading information vs. TV.

Beyond political ads, people are much more likely to purchase products from advertisers in TV news, as potential voters are 42% more likely than not to buy from advertisers adjacent to a breaking news story on local TV news.

"Today's voters, regardless of political involvement or party affiliation, move fluidly across trusted multiscreen TV platforms, spanning both linear and streaming, to stay informed on current events and political issues," said Jason Wiese, executive vice president of strategic insights & measurement, VAB. "TV news delivers the scale, trust, credibility and authenticity that no other media can for both political and non-political advertisers. This creates the opportunity to reach audiences in high-quality viewing environments that are positively perceived and can inform, engage and ultimately drive action."

The full report is available here.

NEW YORK—A new report from the Video Advertising Bureau and TVision addresses the issue of whether premium video or YouTube performs better for marketers and comes to the conclusion that Premium Video consistently delivers stronger results.

To investigate the issue, the VAB commissioned TVision to provide custom research data—collected from July 2024 to June 2025—examining how audiences consume CTV content on Premium Video Platforms versus on YouTube. The researchers analyzed audience data across Disney+, Netflix, HBO Max, Paramount+, Prime Video and 16 other platforms to better understand key audience and behavioral questions including co-viewing, attention and viewing session length. as detailed in the report.

"The data shows that Premium Video Platforms on CTV are much more likely to generate higher levels of co-viewing, enabling advertisers to get greater efficiency out of every CTV impression they buy," said Benjamin Vandegrift, senior vice president, measurement strategy and innovation, VAB. "While attention on YouTube tends to underperform, Premium Video Platforms deliver elevated attention across session durations, which unlocks deeper engagement and greater brand storytelling opportunities for marketers."

Key findings include:

• Premium Video Platforms consistently bring multiple viewers into the room delivering more ad exposures and more efficient impressions for brands, with co-viewing 33% stronger on Premium Platforms than on YouTube.
• Premium Video drives greater consistent attention across content duration than YouTube, with YouTube ranking 14th in sustained time spent with eyes on screen.
• Premium Video Platforms are 18% more likely to convert viewing time into meaningful attentive minutes across CTV viewership.
• Shorter viewing sessions on YouTube limit impressions opportunities, compared with longer form content across Premium Video Platforms—as YouTube ranks last in viewing session length.
• Premium Video Platforms have 49% longer viewing sessions than YouTube, maximizing the marketer opportunity for meaningful impressions.

"Attention and co-viewing are important factors in understanding the quality, impact and total reach of ad impressions. To maximize campaign performance, it is necessary for marketers to understand attentive engagement levels," explains Yan Liu, CEO, TVision. "The analysis presented in The Impression Gap delivers substantive clarity and context on the true value of streaming ad impressions."

The report defines and presents data points representing five key metrics—co-viewing percentage and session length along with the "presence to active," "attention to presence" and "attention to duration" indexes—which quantify the differences in audience behavior on Premium Video versus YouTube.

In the study, references to YouTube do not include data from the vMVPD YouTube TV.

Download the full report here.

NEW YORK—In the run-up to Super Bowl LX, the VAB has released a new study filled with data bolstering the notion that primetime football is among the most powerful programming on TV, delivering massive viewership, real-time engagement and high-impact audiences across streaming and linear TV.

The study comes at a time when reports indicate the NFL is seeking to renegotiate existing contracts for media rights, which the League believes are undervalued compared to sums paid recently paid for the NBA and other sports.

The new report, What's the Spread? Examining Key Stats on Audience Growth From the 2025 NFL Season notes that as Thursday Night Football on Prime Video, Sunday Night Football on NBC and Monday Night Football across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC all continued to grow, NFL primetime served as a reliable engine for scale, with divisional rivalries and tightly contested matchups consistently delivering the biggest audience lifts, with strong co-viewing and out-of-home viewership adding significant incremental reach.

"The NFL continues to deliver outsized, real-time impact, with audiences up year-over-year across all three signature primetime series, reinforcing live football as one of Premium Video's strongest drivers of reach and engagement," said Jason Wiese, executive vice president, strategic insights and measurement, VAB. "Divisional rivalries and many tightly contested games were key drivers of higher audience ratings across the three signature primetime series. Out-of-home viewing, which skews towards younger demographics, is also a critical component of audience growth that adds substantial reach for live sporting events, especially during key holiday periods."

The analysis also highlights how Nielsen's Big Data Plus Panel measurement captures NFL total P2+ audience viewership in comparison to the legacy Panel Only measurement that was the currency-of-record in past years.

Key findings include:

• Live NFL games are watched in real-time, reinforcing it as an effective environment that delivers unmatched immediacy and ad impact.
• Divisional matchups increase viewership by double-digits as fans are more likely to flock towards long-standing, established rivalries.
• Primetime NFL games deliver high-value audiences in key buying demos across multiscreen TV platforms.
• Out-of-home viewership contributes double-digit lifts in total audience, especially among the highly elusive P18-34 demographic.
• Broadcast TV telecasts, led by late-Sunday afternoon timeslot, continue to be the most watched NFL games throughout the season.

The report's findings draw from VAB's viewership analysis based on the full 2025 season schedule across the three signature primetime series versus the prior season. The report—which includes in-depth data, key takeaways and cited sources— can be accessed here.

The Virginia Association of Broadcasters has recognized Bill Sewell, Director of Engineering at WTKR & WGNT in Norfolk, Va. as the recipient of the 2025 J.J. Freeman Engineering Achievement Award. The award honors those “who have made an outstanding contribution to broadcasting and who have shown technical knowledge, dedication, dependability and leadership in broadcast engineering affairs,” according to the VAB.

From the VAB:

Bill Sewell is the Director of Engineering at WTKR & WGNT in Norfolk, Virginia. A native of Louisville, KY, he fell in love with TV news while working in college as a part-time production assistant at WAVE-TV (NBC, Gray Media). He attended the University of Louisville, where he graduated with a degree in MIS in 2002.

At some point along the way, he realized that his interests in both broadcast production and computer science could actually merge into a career. He transitioned into the engineering & IT department at WAVE in 2001, eventually moving to Norfolk to take the Chief Engineer position at WTKR in 2010.

He is an alumnus of the 2017 VAB Best of the Best class and is the current president of the Society of Broadcast Engineers, chapter 54. He and his wife of 20 years, Melanie, have three children—Sam, 16; Griffin, 12, and Maisy, 10.

NEW YORK—Digital ad fraud is an old issue but it remains a very large problem for marketers going into 2024, according to a newly released report from the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) that cites data from Juniper Research pegging digital ad fraud at a whopping $84 billion in 2023 and projections showing that the financial impact is expected to more than double in the next five years. 

To highlight the size of the problem, VAB also estimates that the North American cost of digital ad fraud is roughly equivalent to the total national and local cable TV ad spend in the U.S.

The newly released “Hidden Costs: Three Critical Business Ramifications of Digital Ad Fraud” examines the financial, brand reputational and legal ramifications associated with fraudulent digital video campaigns through case studies and provides guidance on how advertisers can push their media partners to address the issue. 

"Many marketers are aware of the financial risks of digital ad fraud. However, the conditions around that fraud—such as data breaches and adjacencies to objectionable content—also put marketers and their brands in legal and reputational peril," said Sean Cunningham, president and CEO, VAB. "This is all in stark contrast to the high standards of accountability, transparency and brand safety which have always defined the premium video landscape. In 2024, VAB is committed to ending that double standard, and we will continue the fight for a fair and transparent marketplace."

With case studies included, the report elaborates on:

• Financial Risk: In 2023, the estimated global cost of digital ad fraud was $84 billion, and that figure is projected to more than double over the next five years (Source: Juniper Research).
• Brand Reputational & Corporate Risk: A lack of campaign buy transparency can mean that video ads may play in unsuitable or objectionable environments which can devalue brands.
• Legal Risk: Data leaks and breaches can break consumer trust and cost companies in fines from government entities.
• Further, VAB calculated that the North American cost of digital ad fraud is roughly equivalent to the total national and local cable TV ad spend in the US.
• The report also closely examines Adalytics' three studies, all released in 2023, which delve into these issues.

The full report is available here. 

NEW YORK—As broadcasters look for new revenue streams and work to demonstrate the value of TV advertising, a new report from Video Advertising  Bureau (VAB) examines the state of shoppable TV ads and some of the opportunities they are creating. 

"As consumers' viewing habits and buying preferences continue to evolve towards digital experiences, more TV platforms are introducing ad formats featuring shoppable experiences to connect them directly to brands and stimulate conversions and sales," said Jason Wiese, senior vice president and director of strategic insights, VAB. "These interactive ad formats further enhance TV as a high-performance channel that ignites full-funnel outcomes while also providing marketers with innovative ways to increase engagement with customer prospects."

The new report, “Shortening the Path to Purchase: How new opportunities in Shoppable TV” found that viewers who interact with a shoppable ad are inherently more likely to then make a purchase. 

It also highlighted the fact that outside of purchases, viewers interact with different shoppable ad formats in various ways to further engage with, or learn about, brands and products. The survey found more than one third (36%) of audiences have interacted with shoppable ad QR Codes, and 67% have interacted with the "click to receive info to your email or device" ad format. 

The report also highlighted data from Samba TV and HarrisX showing that consumers show a clear interest in making purchases through shoppable ads on their TV set, indicating a ripe opportunity for brands, the VAB said.

In addition, the VAB survey found that younger audiences are more likely to recall seeing shoppable ads, which provides marketers an opportunity to connect with this valuable segment. VAB custom research fielded by Hub Entertainment Research. Data collected June 2023 and sourced from Hub's survey of 1,602 TV consumers, ages 16-74.

The full report is available here. 

NEW YORK—As more sports become available on streaming platforms and a growing number of games are only available on streaming platforms, a new study from the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) provides a cautionary analysis of how streaming exclusivity can impact overall viewing. 

The new VAB report examines the 2022 NFL season when saw Thursday Night Football (TNF) shifted from national TV to streaming as part of a new eleven-year exclusive national distribution deal for Amazon Prime Video. 

The report found that Thursday Night Football audiences were down significantly in 2022 after shifting exclusively to streaming, with average audience and weekly reach declining 37% and 49%, respectively, versus games in 2021 that were available across multiple major video platforms.

"A key implication for marketers is that streaming exclusivity of sports doesn't drive nearly the total audience of TV networks, who utilize their cross-platform access points including broadcast, cable and streaming," said Jason Wiese, senior vice president, director of strategic insights, VAB. "While streaming's in-app audience can have longer tune-in times and skew towards younger adults, a multi-screen approach—encompassing both linear and streaming—typically delivers higher reach, a larger total audience and multicultural demographics in greater numbers."

Some of the report's additional findings—covering audience viewership, demographics and engagement—include: 

• Amazon's streaming exclusivity garnered larger audiences than NFL Network-only games.
• Amazon streaming delivered a higher average 18-to-34 audience in 2022 than the prior year.
• TV networks drive much larger total audiences to their premier night game series.
• NFL games available across broadcast and cable TV networks garner much higher reach.
• A key benefit of in-app streaming TV is longer tune-in time versus other video platforms.
• Streaming viewership is more likely to skew towards younger adults.
• Many more people watch Spanish language game coverage from TV networks. 

The full report is available at https://thevab.com/insight/whats-the-spread-2022.

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 has pushed back strongly against a Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) 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 its statement Nielsen said “We reviewed the information shared by the VAB today, and 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 MRC, for its part, noted that the VAB has mischaracterized MRC's analysis of Nielsen's problems with undercounting audiences during the pandemic. 

"[The MRC] would like to correct a representation that was made concerning MRC in a report issued today by the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) titled `Behind Billions of Lost TV Impressions,’” the MRC said. 

“The VAB report made several references to 'adjustment factors’ that were attributed to MRC, resulting from an analysis MRC conducted last year that concluded certain understatements to Nielsen’s ratings had occurred,” the group said. “In fact, MRC did not position these figures as `adjustment factors,’ nor did MRC recommend they be used in that manner; rather the figures MRC published in May 2021 were presented simply as estimates of ratings understatements that MRC believed occurred in the single month of February 2021. February 2021 was chosen as the subject of the analysis at the time because MRC believed it represented the period at which the potential COVID-related impacts to Nielsen’s panels were at their peak.”

NEW YORK—The Video Advertising Bureau has issued a new report showing that Nielsen’s previously admitted mistake of undercounting out of home (OOH) viewing resulted in major losses for TV networks, with $350 million in losses from May to November of 2021 and total losses exceeding $700 million between September 2020 and December 2021.

Nielsen admitted on December 22, 2021 that due to an internal error, out of home (OOH) viewing for broadband-only homes had not been included in national TV audience estimates between September of 2020 and December of 2021. 

Those undercounts, the VAB said, particularly impacted audiences for live sports, news and high-profile “can’t miss” programs, “tent-pole” events and specials. 

This mistake “compounds Nielsen’s first admitted 2021 error of undercounting TV audiences during Covid” between March 2020 and at least May 2021, the VAB report said. 

Nielsen has however strongly disputed the VAB estimates, saying the impact was "very small" for the majority of telecasts. 

"We reviewed the information shared by the VAB today, and 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," Nielsen said in a statement. 

The Media Rating Council (MRC) also issued a statement saying its analysis of the undercounts had been incorrectly applied by the VAB study. 

To assess the impact, the VAB analyzed an eight month period (May to December 2021) of the total 16 month period. 

It concluded that “almost 30 billion ad impressions went uncounted with only half of the months reported thus far” between May to December 2021 and that “over $350 million in TV ads could not be bought or sold between May to November 21,” with December data not yet available. 

The VAB estimates that the $350 million losses was about 44% of the 16 month total and that total losses for the full period could exceed $700 million. 

The report also detailed that the undercounts had a particularly large impact on younger audiences, with 10.5 billion 18-34 ad impressions being lost and among Blacks (7 billion lost impressions) and Hispanics (5 billion lost impressions) between May to December 2021. 

Live sports was the most affected genre with the top 5 programs resulting in a loss of $50 million in ads that could not be bought or sold. 

The report concluded that nearly 400,000 people were not counted in the Primetime ratings every night from May-December 2021. 

"The only thing worse than Nielsen’s admitted error of sixty-five consecutive weeks of undercounting TV viewing was their claim of ‘no impact to minimal impact’ from that blunder," said Sean Cunningham, president and CEO, VAB.  "We now know that error is tracking towards 60 billion lost TV impressions and $700 million worth of TV ads that marketers couldn’t buy because of Nielsen’s second admitted case of 2020-2021 pervasive undercounting."

“Nielsen’s last two admitted errors combined may have taken over two billion dollars’ worth of TV ads out of the 2020-2021 marketplace just as Nielsen was first denying and then downplaying it all," Cunningham added. "These combined Nielsen errors of wrong numbers and minimal disclosure need to serve as the opposite example of what the buy/sell multiscreen TV marketplace needs from its next set of currency providers, including Nielsen." 

More details are available in the full report here. 

The report was released by VAB in Collaboration with Measurement Innovation Task Force.

NEW YORK—In another sign of the importance that the media industry is placing on developing better measurement systems, the ANA has announced that the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) and the 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies) have joined the ANA’s Cross-Media Measurement (CMM) initiative.

The two organizations join leading brands such as Unilever, P&G, General Motors, Walgreen’s L’Oréal, Verizon, PepsiCo, among others, along with media platforms including Google, Facebook, Amazon, and TikTok on CMM’s steering committee, the ANA said.  

The addition of VAB and the 4A’s to the committee solidifies the TV and the agency communities as full participants in CMM, which brings together advertisers, TV networks, agencies, digital publishers, and large digital platforms to create a cross-media measurement solution, said ANA CEO Bob Liodice.  

“I wholeheartedly welcome VAB’s and the 4A’s participation in this important project,” Liodice said in making the announcement.  “Our CMM project is designed to unify stakeholders spanning the entire advertising ecosystem and the success of any cross-media measurement initiative depends on the cooperation and collaboration of each sector involved in the equation.  With this move we have made a major step in achieving that goal.”

“Cross-media measurement has been a significant industry barrier for years,” Marla Kaplowitz, 4A’s President-CEO, added. “The 4A’s and its members are committed to the ambitions of CMM and look forward to partnering to identify solutions to better understand the effectiveness of media investments.”

Highlighting the industry’s determination to improve measurement of viewing across multiple platforms, VAB President-CEO Sean Cunningham noted that “2022 and 2023 will be marked by seismic advances in sophisticated media performance metrics that give us all multi-dimensional insights on how brands grow across major video media options, and I’m convinced that real collaboration among top marketers, the media and the agencies will be the force that moves measurement mountains.”   

CMM is a strategic priority for the ANA heading into 2022, the group said. It is planning tests throughout the year with the goal of introducing an integrated-end-to-end pilot in late 2022.  The focus is on creating a transparent system of measurement that restores essential metrics of campaign measurement and provides complete measures of all ad exposures, including deduplicated reach and frequency across all platforms, the ANA said. 

 NEW YORK—A new study from the VAB finds that many consumers (52%) believe that we are still in the middle of the pandemic and that national TV continues to attract new brands, with national TV attracting 162 first-time advertisers across 52 categories who invested over $465 million. 

Those findings are part of a larger look at how the pandemic continues to impact the advertising landscape. 

The VAB reported that 52 more brands launched their first TV campaign during the first half of 2021, with 110 brands new to national TV advertising in the first half of 2020 versus 162 in the first half of 2021, a 47% increase. 

It also found that $6.1 million more in ‘new advertiser’ spend entered the national TV marketplace compared to the prior year, with the new advertisers spending $469.3 million in the first half of 2020 versus $465 million in 2021. 

The report also cited recent data from Tatari that found new advertisers were spending considerably more on TV than on streaming. 

“Brands turn to tv to meet evolving consumer behaviors,” the report concluded. “During year two of the ongoing pandemic, opportunistic advertisers lined up to invest in national TV for the first time, looking to capitalize on changing consumer behaviors. Since many of these newfound consumer needs involved online behaviors, brands were turning to TV to drive digital actions.”

The full report from the VAB, which represents most major programmers, is available here. 

NEW YORK—With consumer usage of ad-supported streaming platforms seeing rapid growth the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) has released a new report with 23 case studies documenting the power of video streaming to improve ad campaigns and providing some practical advice to marketers on how they can best capitalize on the medium. 

"With nearly all Americans now streaming, marketers across a variety of categories, investment levels and life stages are experiencing firsthand unprecedented opportunities for brand growth," said Danielle DeLauro, executive vice president of the VAB, whose members include many of the major programmers and national TV networks. "Our collection of over 20 case studies represents a cross-section of premium publishers, distributors and measurement providers, and answers marketers' most frequently asked questions—such as how to use streaming to boost sales and extend reach."

Spanning across an assortment of product categories, the featured case studies were supplied by AMC Networks, Ampersand, DeepIntent, Effectv, Hulu, Innovid, iSpot.tv, NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS' PlutoTV, Simulmedia, Spectrum Reach, TVSquared, VideoAmp and Xperi.

In one case study, TiVo extended campaign reach through data-driven Connected TV (CTV) advertising targeting sport enthusiasts, which drove a 25% increase in device sales.

In another, demonstrating how marketers can use streaming to extend the reach of their video campaign beyond linear TV, a luxury auto advertiser's streaming campaign on Tubi delivered on cross-channel incremental reach, with 89% of Tubi's audience being incremental to the linear buy, and only 3% of media volume overlapping between Tubi and linear campaigns.

In another, focusing on how marketers drive in-store traffic with streaming, a tax services provider drove tax filing conversion rates for both their online services and retail locations. Among the results were a 10% lift in tax filing conversion rate and 66% more efficient cost per conversation.

Additional other case studies and data points are available here in the full report. 

NEW YORK —In the wake of Nielsen’s measurement problems and widespread industry calls for improved cross-platform measurement, the VAB today announced a new Measurement Innovation Task Force that will work to accelerate the pace of innovation in media measurement and currency.

As part of this collaborative effort among VAB member companies, the VAB will work to create the unified best practices and standards for the national TV ad industry. The VAB will also be working to partner with marketers on media measurement solutions for the full marketing ecosystem, the group said. 

The VAB represents major programmers and distributors, including Disney, Discovery, NBCUniversal, A+E, ESPN, ViacomCBS and others. In recent months it has been increasingly critical of problems with Nielsen’s measurement systems that led to Nielsen losing its accreditation from the MRC. 

“The time for action and innovation on measurement is now. That’s why I’m excited to announce the VAB’s new Measurement Innovation Task Force. Our role will be to immediately plug directly into a range of cross-industry initiatives, which first include the ANA's Cross-Media Measurement initiative, OpenAP’s Open ID and NBCUniversal's new cross-industry Measurement Innovation Forum,” said Sean Cunningham, president and CEO, VAB. 

“As each of these complementary initiatives explore, evaluate, and expand new measurement yardsticks, our new Task Force will provide regular feedback, questions, and perspective on behalf of every VAB member company,” Cunningham continued. “By combining the insights of existing initiatives and the involvement of the Task Force, we can finally build a future that works for our entire industry—and the VAB is certainly the natural bridge between all of these vital efforts.” 

In a blog post, Kelly Abcarian, executive vice president of measurement and impact, advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal noted that they will be joining the effort as part of their effort to develop new measurement systems. 

“We’ve long advocated for a more open and accountable marketplace, built on a foundation of trust, transparency, and shared values,” she said. “These efforts include our most recent call to move towards metrics that tell the full story. And we are not alone. There are many others who also believe this is the way forward, and are taking action. The ANA, OpenAP, and VAB have been leading this vital work. Collectively, they’ve agreed that OpenAP and the VAB will continue to focus on promoting interoperability across the TV premium video supply-side and work in tandem with ANA’s Cross Media Measurement initiative.” 

Last month, NBCU set up a Measurement Innovation Forum and next week at the ARF conference, NBCU will announce all of the companies that will be part of NBCU’s Measurement Innovation Forum. This will include media holding companies, brands, and other trade bodies.

It also said that the VAB will participate to represent all the media companies through it’s new Task Force. 

Recently, NBCU has also set up a Certified Measurement Program. It asked for RFPs on measurement and is currently reviewing more than 80 RFPs. In late September or early October, NBCU has said it will announce the measurement groups that become part of its Certified Measurement Program. 

“This effort [by the VAB] will also plug into NBCU’s newly created Measurement Innovation Forum, which will allow experts and leaders from across our industry—such as key brands, holding companies, and additional trade bodies—to weigh in the process and progress towards new measurement solutions,” Abcarian said. “Both these initiatives already have widespread industry support, and the necessary momentum to drive meaningful action.”

NEW YORK—Following the decision by the Media Rating Council (MRC) to remove its accreditation of Nielsen’s national and local TV measurement services, Nielsen has been working to reassure clients while the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) representing major networks called the decision “a loud change-or-die challenge” to Nielsen. 

The VAB also complained that the “time has officially expired on friction and frustration.”

The VAB represents a host of major programmers, including A+E, Discovery, Disney, Fox, NBCUniversal and Viacom CBS, and has been outspoken all year about Nielsen’s measurement problems. 

“The united buy/sell marketplace decision to suspend Nielsen’s national and local market accreditation must be seen by Nielsen as a loud change-or-die challenge,” said Sean Cunningham, president and CEO of the VAB in a statement. “In fact, all measurement and currency providers with big future aspirations in the video advertising sector must take the 2021 mandate for real transparency, full and deep audience capture, urgent innovation and rigorous verification as mission-critical for them all. Advertisers should expect to see more innovation in the next three years in video measurement and currency than what was achieved in the last 30 years, time has officially expired on friction and frustration.”

In an effort to reassure clients, David Kenny, CEO of Nielsen issued a lengthy statement detailing how Nielsen was working to improve its measurement services. 

Stressing that “we will continue to provide the most representative, reliable and robust audience measurement available, which the market can continue to trade on with confidence,” Kenny also outlined the steps they are making “to address outstanding issues and the ongoing work we’re doing to build a new measurement model that reflects where the industry is going.”

In terms of the problems with the panels, he noted that “when the COVID-19 pandemic struck, we prioritized the health and safety of our panelists and our employees. A key decision we made at the time was to not enter panelists’ homes. This decision was designed to protect the health and safety of our panelists and employees and followed CDC and local government guidelines. The by-product hindered recruitment of new panelists and maintenance of existing panelist technology, resulting in a decrease in panel size. With increasing vaccination rates in 2021, we have been able to resume in-home visits, allowing us to troubleshoot issues and add 2,500 homes since March 2021. We have further accelerated our panel recovery efforts to meet the contract install target of 41,600 homes by Q1 2022 and further expand the sample by 15% by Q2 2023.”

Kenny admitted however that “we were not as fast nor were we as transparent as we could have been in reporting issues with our panel resulting from the decision not to enter homes at the start of the pandemic. We understand how critical our data is to our clients and the industry, and have put new policies in place to ensure we communicate more frequently. To assist in this, we will work with the MRC to create a subcommittee with which we will share the details of methodological or procedural changes and provide guidance on general marketplace disclosure. In addition, we have increased the quality control functions on both data input and output to better assess the impact of any changes in the future.”

In terms of adding broadband only homes, which was another reason cited by the MRC for suspending accreditation, Kenny stated that “broadband only homes are an important audience now representing nearly 30% of TV households in some local markets.  We believe it is critical to include them in local measurement as soon as possible, but we agree that we need to move to an explicit universe estimate. Their exclusion to-date means a gap and bias in measurement and we have been and continue to commit to integrating them in a responsible way. Over the next few weeks, we will work with the MRC to refine and audit universe estimates for weighting and sample controls which will provide safeguards to ensure broadband only, cable and over-the-air homes are properly represented in our panel.”

He also highlighted their efforts to create a new measurement system that will “reflect how people are truly consuming media.”

“That’s why we’re putting tremendous energy and investment into a new measurement approach, called Nielsen ONE, which will dramatically simplify measurement to a single, de-duplicated cross-media metric,” he wrote. “We are confident in our vision, have made significant progress and are on track to deliver parallel data in Q4 2022. We believe strongly that the industry as a whole – including the MRC and all its members – would be well-served to embrace this cross-media future regardless of how uncomfortable it may feel in the near-term.  Doing so will greatly benefit consumers and the industry in the long-term.”

NEW YORK—Nielsen claims that it does not need to take another look at its TV ratings measurements from the past year, rebuking the call by the Video Advertising Bureau on behalf of the major TV networks for an independent, third-party audit.

Last week, VAB wrote a letter to Nielsen calling for an audit on TV ratings during the pandemic, saying there was “dissatisfaction and concerns” with Nielsen’s measurement methods as the system “degraded” over the course of the pandemic.

In a statement, which was provided to TV Tech, Nielsen said that it is regularly examined by the Media Rating Council, and therefore does not need to be subject to an additional audit.

“Third party auditing has always been a vital part of serving as the industry currency and our products undergo a comprehensive audit process with the Media Rating Council on an annual basis,” the statement reads. “Nielsen’s existing MRC audit process exists to ensure confidence and trust in the audience estimates we produce. We have been clear and transparent with the MRC and our clients on every change in protocol we needed to make during COVID to keep our people and panelists safe.”

According to VAB, the changes referred to in the Nielsen statement have led to a 20% drop in households supplying “usable” information. It also claims that the number of homes registering no TV viewing has risen 120%. Nielsen has maintained, however, that its work and numbers, audited by MRC, are accurate.

“Our work with the MRC, the independent body created for this very reason, is ongoing and should serve the purpose of an independent audit,” Nielsen's statement added. “Since VAB members are also MRC members, they should feel free to engage directly with the MRC. A single third party audit is the best approach for the industry and we will work closely with the MRC on all audit requests.”

VAB’s CEO Sean Cunningham responded to Nielsen’s denial for an audit by calling it “a glaring negative outlier from the market’s currency provider and partner.”

NEW YORK—TV networks want to double check Nielsen’s numbers regarding TV ratings during the COVID-19 pandemic. A formal request for a third-party audit of Nielsen has been issued by the Video Advertising Bureau, which Variety first reported.

A letter sent from VAB CEO Sean Cunningham, which represents the TV networks, cites the “profound dissatisfaction and concerns with Nielsen’s handling of our industry’s month-long urging for rightsized remedies to shortfalls in the company’s COVID period TV usage and measurement data.”

VAB has been making the argument that Nielsen let its system degrade during lockdown, saying that the network of households the supply “usable” information shrunk by 20% between February 2021 and February 2021. VAB also claims that the number of homes registering no TV viewing at all rose 120%.

Nielsen has that it has full confidence in its reporting of numbers.

VAB is demanding that Nielsen submit to an audit from Ernst and Young to verify data from March 2020-March 2021. VAB wants a response from Nielsen by April 19.

For more information, read the full story on Variety. 

BURLINGTON, VT.—A trio of broadcasters have been newly enshrined into the Vermont Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame: Judy Simpson, Tom Beardsley and Brian Collamore.

Judy Simpson, Tom Beardsley and Brian Collamore.

Simpson was the first female TV news director in Vermont history when she joined WVNY in 1985. She would join WCAX in 1997 and began serving as anchor of “Channel 3 News This Morning” in 2000; she would continue anchoring for 10 years. She retired earlier this year, but still continues to host “Across the Fence” for WCAX. She is also a past recipient of the VAB’s Distinguished Service Award.

Beardsley’s career began at WIRD-AM in Lake Placid, NY, in 1969. He had other stops that included WIKE-AM in Newport, WHWB-AM in Rutland and WPTZ-TV before he spent 30 years at WDEV and its sister stations, both on air and in the sales department. He also worked for Rep. Peter Smith of the New England Daily Council and was part owner of a small radio group in Maine for four years.

Starting his career working at WRMC and WFAD while attending Middlebury College, Collamore would later hold positions at WHWB-AM before joining WSYB in 1974, serving on air and in sales. He hosts “The Proctor Gas Morning Show” and is the 2013 recipient of the VAB’s Distinguished Service Award. He is currently in his second term as a state Senator for Rutland County.

In addition, the VAB presented distinguished service awards to Lynn Beaudoin, Mark Esbjerg and Steve Pelkey. The Alan Noyes Community Service Award was presented to WTSA radio. And Greg Towne of WVNY-TV was given the Snyyder-Teffner Award for excellence behind the scenes.

The VAB hosted its awards and induction ceremony on Dec. 2.