TV measurement is at a turning point.
Partnerships, acquisitions, and debates have been going on for the past few months as Nielsen’s rivals start to gain ground.
But there is one thing that all competing measurement providers agree on; the importance of having an independent review.
It happened over the summer. Nielsen lost its seal of approval from the Media Rating Council for national and local TV ratings because it underestimated the number of people watching TV during the pandemic.
Nielsen has been working hard to get its accreditation back since then. Its cross-screen measurement product, Nielsen ONE, also wants to get its own accreditation.
After Nielsen lost its national and local TV rating accreditation, Nielsen ONE started alpha testing in December. This was just a few months after Nielsen lost its accreditation from the MRC.
GETTING ACROSS THE BRIDGE
For more than a decade, advertisers have asked for cross-platform measurement, but the industry also needs to compare cross-media audiences to each other on the same metrics.
Fragmentation makes it even more important to have a single standard because it makes it more competitive.
It will still be necessary for advertisers and their agencies to figure out whether or not what they paid for was worth it.
No matter what, programmers are unquestionably opening up the floodgates to new competition in town: new measurement providers.
The alt takes the lead.
You can sign up for alternative measurement providers if you’re a developer, even though they don’t have an MRC seal.
Third-party accreditation also removes providers who don’t have what it takes and makes things easier for those who have what it takes to do their job well. People who want to work with accredited companies don’t have to spend as much time answering questions about transparency if they’ve gone through the MRC process.
But, on the subject of time, getting certified takes a long time.
Then, in the meantime, there are ways to be transparent, build trust, and break open the black box by being honest and being open.
One way to show clients that you’re trustworthy while you’re waiting for a third-party endorsement is to show them the backend code.
When it comes to measuring the future, there will be a lot of different providers but only one leader. This is similar to how there are a lot of different SSPs competing to be the best—the same thing for DSPs.
This content was originally published here.
