NBCUniversal Pushes for Independent Measurement, Intensifying Pressure on Nielsen

As Nielsen continues to face the fall-out from its national television audience undercounts, including a possible loss of accreditation, one of its longtime customers is pushing for the industry to find measurement alternatives. In a blog post published Monday, NBCUniversal signaled its intent to encourage other companies in the space to reevaluate their metrics and their measurement partners. That intent is already happening behind the scenes: this month, the broadcaster sought out proposals from measurement partners to construct its own certified measurement program, another step away from Nielsen metrics that have previously underpinned much of the industry’s advertising transactions. Leading the charge on the effort is Kelly Abcarian, a former Nielsen executive who joined NBCUniversal in April, and now serves as evp, measurement and impact of NBCUniversal’s advertising and partnerships division. “We can construct a better, more transparent future. And we need all our industry's builders—including Nielsen—to architect an entirely new blueprint,” Abcarian wrote in a blog post published Monday. “It's time for us to declare measurement independence, and build solutions that will serve all consumers, advertisers, publishers, and platforms for the next century.” Related: Media Rating Council Likely to Strip Nielsen’s Accreditation Next Week The blog post comes hours before NBC will close the doors on a month-long hunt for proposals to shape the NBCU Certified Measurement Program. Earlier this month, the broadcaster sought out proposals from more than 50 measurement partners requesting proposals on how to verify and measure audiences, including incremental ones, deliver brand metrics, measure multitouch attribution and provide business outcome guarantees. Those proposals, which were requested at the beginning of the month, are due to NBCUniversal no later than today, and NBCUniversal will have more to share in the coming weeks about additional steps. “NBCUniversal is bringing together a broad network of trusted partners to help modernize the industry's approach,” Abcarian wrote. “We're in the process of assembling a full suite of interoperable measurement solutions that are as advanced, diverse, easy-to-use and multiplatform as the ways people watch content.” The effort from NBCUniversal comes as the Media Rating Council, an independent third party that reviews and accredits measurement products, readies a public decision on the fate of Nielsen’s national TV ratings service accreditation, the accuracy of which was cast into doubt over the course of the pandemic. The MRC’s TV Committee already overwhelmingly voted to strip Nielsen of its accreditation, Adweek previously reported, and if that decision is upheld it could mark a considerable blow to Nielsen as the company looks to regain its footing and rebuild trust with some of its media partners. That vote is expected to be made public sometime this week. The Video Advertising Bureau, an industry trade group of which NBCUniversal is a part, has been applying pressure on Nielsen, and previously requested that the MRC strip Nielsen of its accreditation due to VAB members’ claims of inaccuracies within Nielsen metrics. Following that request, Nielsen, which has pledged to make necessary updates to shore up accuracy, took the unprecedented step of asking the MRC to put its national TV ratings service accreditation on hiatus as it makes updates to its service ahead of the roll-out of Nielsen One, the company’s unified cross-measurement option that is slated to roll out next year. While the request came as a shock in the months-long feud, it’s the third such request in 12 months’ time from the measurement firm; Nielsen had the accreditation of its digital ad ratings service, DAR, paused since October 2020, and has also had its local TV ratings service accreditation paused since January 2021. Neither of those services have since had their accreditations reinstated. If the MRC does not grant Nielsen’s hiatus request and instead votes to suspend Nielsen’s national TV service accreditation, that product will lose its accreditation service within 30 days.