TV Measurement and Currency
What our reporting found
Unmeasured is ADOTAT's desk on the numbers TV ad money trades on and who checks them. Last year the JIC published where Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp fell short; this year it gave the 672 test results only to members. CIMM gave TV currency, itself included, 18 months to give its referees real consequences. Netflix and YouTube landed on the same 18.5 million NFL audience, measured two different ways, and VideoAmp's $6 billion figure works out to about $2 billion. Howard Shimmel and Mike Follett explain why the fixes have existed for years.
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8 stories, newest first- Unmeasured: CIMM Gave TV Currency 18 Months To Get Its Act Together. Including Itself.
The Strong Foundations task force will try to give TV currency's referees real consequences. It has a buy-side bench, no plan to replace anybody, and 18 months to prove it works.
- Unmeasured: The JIC Calls It "How a Number Is Made." The 672 Test Results Went To Members.
Last year the JIC told everyone where Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp fell short. This year it told members. Nielsen also reset Spanish-language TV's denominator and kept its daily streaming data for clients.
- Mike Follett Says the Old Farts Were Right About Attention
He has a button on The Trade Desk and still won't call attention a currency. Beer, goldfish and a podcast ad that broke the machine.
- Unmeasured: Netflix Matched YouTube's 18.5 Million NFL Audience. Nielsen Counted Them Differently.
Two streaming NFL games, one year apart, landed on the same number. They were not measured the same way, and the footnotes say so.
- Unmeasured: Samsung Sells The Fix For 41% Duplication. Nobody Owns The Stop Button.
Howard Shimmel said the fix is a dropdown menu. The harder question is who is allowed to use it.
- Howard Shimmel: The Currency Is A Dropdown Menu. Nielsen, VideoAmp And Comscore Have Spent Twenty Years Pretending Otherwise.
The Ephron Award winner watched a CTV campaign hit the same three percent of a target roughly two hundred times. Every tool to prevent it is in production at multiple vendors. Forty-seven years in, he says the barrier was never technical.
- Unmeasured: VideoAmp Says $6 Billion. The Math Says $2 Billion.
A former chief commercial officer built the figure, then left before it tripled.
- Nielsen Says It's More Accurate Because Its Own Model Was Skewing Older.
Seven changes land the same day, one vendor goes unnamed, and nobody's saying who wins or loses.
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