SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico – It may have been sold to Innovid for $160 million, but TVSquared is staying focused on its founding mission.
Several MVPDs are this year testing out new measurement and currency options for trading multi-platform video and TV ads, weaning themselves off the traditional Nielsen panel.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, TVSquared chief strategy officer Bob Ivins explains why advertisers are driving the change.
Upfronts’ new twist
At Beet Retreat San Juan, Ivins reminded how Nielsen has been off the Media Rating Council’s (MRC) approved list since September after underreporting viewing during the pandemic.
The MRC is now due to audit Nielsen, but that isn’t expected until the end of Q3 2022.
“There’s no MRC-accredited currency to support the upfronts,” Ivins says. “So that opens up a whole can of worms in terms of guarantees and things like that.”
Upfronts for the last-year TV season were estimated to reap $19.9 billion in ad sales commitments.
Now, however, many TV networks are turning to an array of tech companies to test their ability to measure consumption deterministically and across platforms.
Toward impressions
“Clearly, the market is speaking that that’s not going to work any longer,” Ivins adds.
“The market really wants to go to impression-based buying and selling.
“There’s a lot of data and there’s a lot of new players and I think that’s the exciting bit.
“I’m sure people are still going to trade on, transact on Nielsen, but I think there’ll be other ones too.”
Seat at the table
But Ivins says TVSquared, which provides measurement, outcomes attribution and audience insights for viewing, doesn’t want to be regarded into the crop of new-wave currencies.
The company began in Edinburgh, with a fin-tech background, processing real-time data to derive insights.
“TVSquared never set out to be a currency,” Ivins says. “We set out to help brands, advertisers answer that question.
“We hope we have a seat at the table but, at the end of the day, it’s going to be the advertisers are going to be the ones that make and call the shots.”
