What Buyers Really Think About the Top Measurement Companies

Desperate times call for desperate measures ... and plenty of measurement companies desperately trying to become market contenders. The state of measurement and currency has been up in the air since the Media Rating Council shook things up in 2021 by stripping Nielsen of its accreditation for national and local TV measurement. That led to a flurry of other companies ramping up their efforts to become the top Nielsen measurement alternative. Meanwhile, Nielsen itself announced plans to replace C3, TV’s longtime standard metric for commercial measurement, by fall 2024. That means that by the end of 2024, all currencies on the market (including Nielsen’s latest offering, Nielsen One) would be new. And with that, the measurement floodgates have opened. Since Nielsen lost its accreditation, several key players have risen to challenge the company's measurement dominance, including VideoAmp, Comscore and iSpot.tv. To assess who's measuring up at the moment—and who isn't—Adweek spoke to several buyers, media insiders and even publishers on the condition of anonymity, learning which companies are the best to work with the industry's upcoming multicurrency future. Inside the TV Industry’s Numbers-Crunching to Build Its Multicurrency Future VideoAmp emerging as top contender Though Nielsen is still maintaining a hold on the market ahead of more alternative currencies being adopted, its grip is loosening. When citing the top options giving Nielsen a run for its money, several buyers pointed to VideoAmp as the best company to work with. "I think they're doing some really innovative things to evolve their offering," one buyer told us, with another saying that VideoAmp was "the most solution-oriented" of the measurement offerings.A second buyer said they felt like hype around new currencies was in part brought on by NBCUniversal ad sales chief Linda Yaccarino constantly promoting them during the last upfront—before they were truly viable options. For the first time, her company had transacted some upfront deals on iSpot currency alongside Nielsen. "I feel like we were shoved into iSpot,” the buyer added. The buyer noted that no company is perfect and that iSpot has some "great capabilities," but they added, "I think with VideoAmp, I've been surprised with the connectivity that they have between the data and the tech." Filling in the gaps A third buyer explained that both VideoAmp and iSpot have made the most inroads with the publisher side, adding that a traditional shortcoming of alternative currency providers came down to Nielsen being a one-stop solution for networks to make projections and buyers to plan and transact. Until recently, the VideoAmps and iSpots of the world didn't have a product or tools for companies to plan upfront buys appropriately, the buyer explained. "You're like, 'OK, I'm gonna plan on Nielsen, but then I'm going to transact on a different currency.' That gets a little squirrelly," the third buyer said. But that's changing: According to that same buyer, Nielsen will still play a major role in upfront transactions, but VideoAmp now has planning tools that will be utilized for select clients in the upcoming upfront. Additionally, with footprints of up to 40 million households, the big data sets of alternative measurement companies put Nielsen's traditional panel of 40,000 homes to shame. However, another of the alternative currency holdups in the 2022 upfront was the fact that new players in the space couldn't transact on actual demographic information within those massive data amalgamations. "Instead of 18-49, it was a household with an 18-49 in it," the third buyer said. "That doesn't help you so much." This roadblock allowed Nielsen's traditional measurement to retain its place in the market. However, with new developments, including iSpot and VideoAmp teaming with audience viewership company TVision, those demographic-specific transactions are becoming a reality. How the Big Measurement Companies Actually Measure Up Room for improvement Despite some companies taking an early measurement lead, there may be room for several options at the table. "I wouldn't say any are bad to work with," a media data executive who works with all the major measurement and currency contenders told us. "I think they're trying to design their businesses to be built for different purposes, potentially, with the end goal in a year, two years, three years, to merge." While there could be convergence in the future, some of the differences are also presenting challenges in the present. Though iSpot was also cited as good to work with, our third buyer noted that the company "has set itself up to be much more seller-facing than buying-facing," not having agency teams set up the way VideoAmp does. According to the buyer, "Comscore's drawback is it's predominantly set-top box, and the mix of set-top and ACR data is important," though Comscore has some compelling local capabilities. Additionally, the buyer added that Samba TV feels "further behind." However, the company could catch up after narrowing its focus to data and measurement by offloading its U.S.-managed media sales business unit to MiQ. Meanwhile, buyer two explained that several companies might find themselves chasing iSpot and VideoAmp. "Comscore was a little slow. I think Nielsen is always too slow. And it hurt both of them, quite honestly," the buyer said. "I think VideoAmp and iSpot came out very quickly and very aggressively, and I think we've seen some of the other guys now trying to play catch-up a little bit." Regarding Nielsen's new Nielsen One offering, which rolled out officially in January following an earlier iteration—Nielsen One Alpha—a year earlier, the reviews were mixed. Some buyers Adweek spoke to were "underwhelmed" by Nielsen One, while others claimed it had "potential." Though the media data exec we spoke to noted that Nielsen moved too slowly to market, the company is apparently "doing all the right things" and giving good visibility on its framework and tool kit. "When you're the behemoth and driving the state of measurement in the industry, I can understand why they're being careful," the executive said. What happens next? As to where things are going, one publisher predicted that Nielsen would end up being part of the mix, and VideoAmp could emerge as the second main player. Then, companies such as iSpot and TVision may prove to be viable as more one-off solutions for clients. However, despite any predictions of mergers or who would come out on top, publishers, buyers and insiders all came to one conclusion: No one has a crystal ball. "This industry is like water. It always finds a path forward," a fourth buyer told us. "So even though we've got a bit of a challenge right now, with some of the tensions in the marketplace, I think what will come of that is some really innovative new solutions." This story is part of Adweek’s Finding the Customer digital package, which spotlights marketers’ efforts to accurately measure and track evolving consumer behaviors and engagement. Nielsen CEO David Kenny on Nielsen One Learnings, Reaccreditation and What’s Next

Finding the Customer

What Buyers and TV Insiders Really Think About the Top Measurement Companies

From who's the best to work with—to what still needs improvement

Bill Bradley

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