Horizon To Test Comscore Local TV Measurement As 'Currency'


Broadening efforts around all TV measurement, Horizon Media will test Comscore’s local TV measurement data for a possible new form of currency for planning and buying in 2023.

This partnership follows Horizon Media’s announcement several months ago to transact up to 15% of national TV advertising upfront business with alternative currencies.

Many media agencies have partnered with TV networks and new TV and cross-media platform measurement providers in the use of potential new, alternative currencies for national TV.

Comscore was the only local TV measurement company selected to participate in the Horizon test, which will be conducted in two phases.

The first part will look at data analysis, discovery and stability, of Comscore data as an alternative local currency. The second part will be in-market, live tests of client media buys and their outcomes.

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In addition, Eric Blankfein, executive vice president of CORD (Channel Observance, Research & Development) at Horizon Media, said, in a release that the test will determine “usability” of Comscore data with the FreeWheel's Strata Platform ad server operations. He said it will determine how seamlessly the Comscore system is for “onboard first and and third party targeting.”

 
3 comments about "Horizon To Test Comscore Local TV Measurement As 'Currency'".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, June 23, 2022 at 11:59 a.m.

    This makes sense,Wayne as the fundamental issue in local market TV ratings is the small panels that Nielsen is forced to utilize since the stations, understandably, can't afford to pay for people meter-type surveys  using the sample sizes that are needed.

    On a national basis we now recognize that a panel of only 40,000-42,000 homes as used by Nielsen is too small to measure the highly fragmented "linear TV" and streaming landscape with a reasonable amount of stability in  individual episode ratings---even if all that is reported is "opportunity to see" not the much smaller projections that would result if our national time buying and selling currency was based on attentive viewing.

    Ok, but even in the tiny DMA of West Podunk---with 75,999 TV homes you have nearly as many channels to measure as you have nationally, and as many streaming  services, yet all that the West Podunk DMA stations can support is a panel of 500 homes to get their ratings. Result: extremely unstable ratings for most of the shows offered by the stations ---to say nothing of the demo breaks.

    The problem is that set-top-box panels may not represent the set usage preferences of all West Podunk households as more and more people "cut the cord". And set usage is a very poor indicator of personal viewing. The obvious compromise is for a blending of STB and ACR home panels---to obtain a large enough set usage base for stable reporting and a much smaller people-meter panel to obtain the much needed viewer-per-set factors that can be applied to the set usage findings. If we attempt to rely only on set usage data we are  opting for stability---or consistency---- in our local ratings but  getting very misleading information about who, exactly, is watching. Both are needed---stability and viewing data.

  2. John Grono from GAP Research, June 23, 2022 at 7:54 p.m.

    Very true Ed.

    I have a few questions, that someone may know more about the data and its collection:


    • What do the numbers on the graph represent?   Given that the data is "week of" what are the criteria to be included in the reported graph?

    • If a set is switched on for one minute in the week does it contribute to the count?

    • Would that mean that a very heavy viewing home would contribute with equal weight as the one minute home?

    • If so, doesn't this basically mean it is the weekly reach (which is useful for a media planner but about as useful as an ashtray on a motorbike for a media buyer

    • And, can anyone posit any reasons why Chicago and Detriot follow very similar lines on the graph, as do Los Angeles and New York, but albeit around 10 percentage points lower

  3. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, June 24, 2022 at 6:56 a.m.

    John, the table is rather difficult to fathom. At first, I thought  that they had taken one timeslot---perhaps 9PM ---and made an average minute HUT---homes using TV--- comparison----but who knows. It's a classic example of a very poor way of presenting data---with no indication in the heading or elsewhere to tell us what's being reported.

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