Roughly seven months ago, comScore completed its merger with Rentrak. Now comScore clients are getting the first look at panel and census beta data that will help advertisers, media owners and distributors better understand “the dynamics of how consumers are finding and consuming content,” according to Bob Ivins, comScore’s EVP of Business Development for Cross Media.
Historically, audience measurement has sat in its media-specific silos that segregated television from digital media. “Now with technology consumers are in charge of not only what they watch but also when, where and how, those two things needed to kind of come together,” Ivins says in an interview with Beet.TV.
The merger melded comScore’s track record in digital audience measurement with Rentrak’s long history of passively collected linear TV viewing data.
“Because consumers are in control, there’s a lot of pressure on the existing business models, whether it’s how you create content, distribute content and subsidize it with advertisers,” says Ivins. “We’re exposing specific clients to specific sets of data so they can get the first read and we can kind of pass the smell check,” Ivins adds. “Once we get beyond this beta period then we’ll get into the syndicated delivery of data with a regular cadence, with expectations on when data will be available. I think we’ll be there by the end of the year.”
The company’s router-based Total Home Panel has roughly 5,000 homes under measurement, capturing data from a plethora of devices “so we’ll get some visibility on consumption of OTT,” among other behavior, Ivins says.
As the annual DEMEXCO global industry gathering approaches, Ivins is asked what he foresees a year from now. “I used to always say that set-top box data will be the raw material for TV audience measurement in my lifetime,” he notes. “I had to make that runway a little bit longer. So sometime this century it’s going to happen. I think the demand is there and data continues to become more granular, more available and timely.”
This video is part of “The Road to DMEXCO ’16,” a lead-up series with key influencers on the topics and trends to be addressed at DMEXCO. This series is presented by YuMe. Please visit this page for additional segments.
