CANNES – The major shift in people’s television viewing habits has led to a need for audience measurement that covers a variety of platforms – everything from traditional linear television to video streaming on connected devices. Media companies in the past year have gained greater confidence that they can sell advertising with the help of more measurement providers.
“We had to make sure that we could not only do rigorous evaluation around data integrity and measurement…but really getting confident that we could steward a campaign through,” Andrea Zapata, executive vice president and head of ad sales research at media giant Warner Bros. Discovery, said.
Media-measurement providers VideoAmp and Comscore have emerged as an alternative to stalwart Nielsen in helping to set the value of ad transactions, or what are known as currencies. The newer currencies have had a bigger role in this year’s upfront sales season, when television networks seek commitments on their best ad inventories. For Warner Bros. Discovery, that portfolio of network brands includes CNN, Discovery Channel, TBS, TNT, TLC, Food Network, HGTV and Cartoon Network.
“We wanted to make sure that that was ready in time for us to be able to…write deals in this upfront with our holdco partners, if they chose to, off of a non-Nielsen currency,” Zapata said in this interview with Jonathan Steuer, co-founder and chief executive of Anonymous Media Research. “What we’ve learned in the last probably a couple of months…is that there is definite keen interest in transacting off of a Comscore or VideoAmp when it comes to advanced advertising.”
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