Walmart-Vizio Deal Exposes Fragility in Measurement Market

Walmart's intention to buy TV maker Vizio, the largest supplier of automatic content-recognition data in the industry, has sources wondering whether this precious ACR data will be available under the new ownership. In recent years, a bevy of upstart ad-tech firms sprung up to solve the challenge of measuring audiences in streaming TV environments. Many of these companies have relied on data from Vizio to help advertisers draw insights and develop new currencies for the connected TV age. “Nobody is supporting as much of the ecosystem as Vizio, which is what makes it valuable,” said Dave Morgan, CEO of TV buying firm Simulmedia. Here’s What to Know About Walmart Buying Vizio, According to Experts ACR data identifies what shows and ads are playing on smart TVs, which is extremely difficult to track in the fragmented world of streaming television. Measurement firms can turn this information into viewership data and link it back to audiences for attribution purposes. While ACR data is valuable, many smart TV manufacturers have been reluctant to sell it, preferring to keep the information to sell to their own advertisers. While some TV manufacturers have struck limited deals with measurement firms to access their ACR data, none has made the signals more widely available than Vizio. “Vizio has the best data,” said Yan Liu, CEO of TVision, a panel-based measurement firm that does not rely on ACR data but works with many firms that do. “Anyone can pay and buy, and it’s the cleanest and best product.”As buyers anxiously wait for a clear and consistent way of tracking how many people watch their ads on streaming TV, the measurement industry relies on a limited and precarious set of signals to get the job done. Vizio and Walmart did not respond to requests for comment. ACR is becoming increasingly limited Given that ACR data is a precious resource, ad-tech firms have been moving swiftly to gather as much for themselves as possible. In 2021, Roku acquired ACR tech from Nielsen. Although Nielsen had previously licensed this data to other firms, the data is now only available for Nielsen and Roku, AdExchanger reported at the time and several sources corroborated. A Nielsen spokesperson said the company doesn't comment on where it licenses its data. Ad-tech firm Tremor International, now Nexxen, struck a deal in October 2021 to gain exclusive access to the ACR data of VIDAA, a subsidiary of TV manufacturer Hisense. In 2022, Nexxen announced that it was investing in VIDAA and extending the ACR partnership. While Vizio has more ACR deals than its competitors—with companies such as Nielsen, iSpot and VideoAmp licensing data—it hasn’t shied away from the exclusivity game. In April 2021, Vizio entered into a partnership that let Yahoo’s demand-side platform be the exclusive DSP to access Vizio’s ACR data. Despite the Walmart deal, a Yahoo spokesperson told ADWEEK that the company will retain access to Vizio's data and is exploring ways to grow its partnership. Other sources of data If Walmart limits the availability of Vizio’s ACR data to partners, other manufacturers could step up to fill a need in the market. For example, LG Ad Solutions has only done strategic deals with its ACR data so far with Nielsen, iSpot and Magnite, according to a source familiar with the company. Samsung does not license its ACR data, and Roku—in addition to sharing ACR data with its own advertisers—is seemingly just sharing with Nielsen. “LG is going to have more opportunities than [it] did,” Morgan said. “Samsung will continue to have opportunities with what [it] wants to do [with its ACR data].” Existing players could expand their data offering, but the ACR business isn’t exactly territory for a startup. For ACR data to be valuable, it must have a massive scale, meaning access to millions of households, which is only available to incumbent manufacturers. Publishers have data about how many people saw what ad, but not at the scale of TV manufacturers, and they are usually fairly selective about sharing it, Morgan said. There is no great alternative in the market. Yan Liu, CEO of TVision Plus, ACR technology requires sophisticated artificial intelligence to figure out what’s playing on a TV screen, and it’s not an inherent part of TV manufacturing. So existing TV manufacturers not already in the ACR game would have to either build or acquire to begin to have access to this data. Indeed, Vizio itself was able to get into the ACR business via its acquisition of Cognitive Media Networks, later renamed Inscape, in 2015. Buyers and measurement firms looking for data about viewership have other sources, like panel data that comes from surveys and set-top-box data from cable and satellite providers like Dish and DirecTV. But none is an exact substitute for the technically precise and streaming-specific ACR data. Of course, Walmart might decide to continue selling Vizio’s ACR data as a revenue stream, instead of siphoning it off for its own ad businesses. If Walmart turns off the ACR spigot, precise measurement of streaming could continue to be an unrealized dream for advertisers. “[Vizio is the] go-to-solution,” Liu said. “There is no great alternative in the market.”