Comscore Makes Major Set-Top-Box Data Deal With Comcast

Comcast Corp. -- which has long been protective of the set-top-box data set of its cable TV system subscribers -- has made a rare measurement deal with TV/media data company Comscore.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

The measurement agreement with Comcast "will greatly improve our direct measurement of television households across the U.S., " said Bill Livek, chief executive officer of Comscore, in a statement.

He added: “It is a major step in our ongoing journey toward more precise measurement, helping us develop better products to serve our customers and drive revenue growth in the coming years.”

Comcast cable systems totaled 21.4 million subscribers as of November 2019 -- making it the biggest among all cable operators. Comcast cable TV set-top-box data has long been deemed a valuable trove of TV viewer information.

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This comes as Comscore announced fourth-quarter financial results which revealed that revenues slid 12% to $95.2 million compared to $109.3 million in the prior-year quarter. Full-year 2019 revenue was down 7% to $388.6 million.

For the current period, Comscore’s Ratings/Planning business revenue was down 11% to $66.8 million. Analytics/Optimization business revenue was down 26% to $17.7 million. Movies reporting and analytics revenue was basically flat -- $10.7 million versus $10.6 million.

Comscore was able to trim its net losses in the quarter --  $21.4 million versus $27.2 million in the prior-year quarter for 2018.

1 comment about "Comscore Makes Major Set-Top-Box Data Deal With Comcast".
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  1. Steve McGowan from Macatawa Media Partners, February 28, 2020 at 2:07 p.m.

    Interesting that this deal with Comscore is drawing so much attention since Nielsen has been working with them (reportedly) for a couple of years.  Maybe this will push them (Nielsen) to incorporate Comcast STB data into the former diary markets--but only after clients have had a chance to see a reasonable amount of impact data.

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