LAS VEGAS – Talking television ratings, Donna Speciale is ready for C Whatever, given the media company’s vast cross-platform presence, but for now she’s pleased that clients have warmed up to C7. She calls it “baby steps.”
In an interview at the Nielsen Consumer 360 conference, the President of Ad Sales at Turner Broadcasting System explains that consumer viewing behavior was the driving force behind the industry shift from Nielsen’s C3—a commercial rating plus three days—to C7.
“The majority of clients now realize that we now need to capture the metrics for all 7 days,” Speciale says, adding “plus 10, 20, 30, it’s really the irony of where it really should go. But right now we’re taking baby steps.”
Almost coming off the Upfront television negotiating period, because “it never stops,” Speciale is pleased thus far. “Money seems to be healthy,” she says. “The scatter market over the last couple of quarters has been healthy. We were predicting that the Upfront would be strong as well and it is.”
Although some advertising categories were up while others were down, Speciale offers another Upfront takeaway. “I think advertisers and marketers are now realizing that the mixture between digital and linear is crucial,” she says. “Probably too much went into the digital space, so I think we’re seeing some dollars kind of come back into the TV space.”
She’s optimistic about Nielsen’s evolving Total Audience measurement solution so that measurement across all viewing platforms can be standardized. “We don’t really exactly know where all the viewers are watching our content,” says Speciale. “We have assumptions on it but there’s no metrics to it. But I think that’s where Nielsen is going.”
This video is part of series produced at Consumer 360. The series is sponsored by Nielsen. Please visit this page for additional segments.
