Warner Bros. Discovery is giving a league of would-be providers of TV-audience measurement its own appraisal.
After tapping Comscore, iSpot.TV and VideoAmp last year to help build a new suite of technologies that will help count viewers across linear, digital and connected television, the big entertainment company is paring down its provider list when it comes to those whose work will be used in transactions. Comscore and VideoAmp will serve as partners during Warner Bros. Discovery’s efforts during the industry’s next “upfront” sales session.
“Our methodology was quite rigorous,” says Andrea Zapata, the company’s executive vice president and head of ad sales research, measurement and insights, in an interview.
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With more advertisers and media agencies demanding a tabulation of audiences with narrower characteristics than age or gender, many of the nation’s biggest media companies have been trying to devise new measurement systems using providers other than Nielsen, which has long served as the industry’s standard audience measure.
Zapata says the company examined the measurement providers for their ability to measure audiences across media venues; for their ability to gauge so-called “advanced” audiences, or groups of consumers not aligned by broader factors such as gender or age; and their ability to be what the executive called “transaction capable.”
The absence of iSpot from the current set of currency providers is notable, since iSpot has struck a major alliance with NBCUniversal to measure video audiences. Its absence from the Warner Bros. Discovery roster means advertisers will likely have to grapple with different permutations of measurement technology across media companies, creating a more complex landscape overall. iSpot remains a measurement partner of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Zapata says the company’s choice of providers has nothing to do with competing with another media company. “We were already agnostic in our evaluation, and we want all of them to succeed,” she says of the various measurement companies striking partnerships in recent years. “Competition is healthy.”
Warner Bros. Discovery in 2022 struck an alliance with Interpublic Group’s Mediabrands that allowed advertisers to test the various companies’ technologies. Meanwhile, the company was also involved with Omnicom Media Group partners such as AT&T and State Farm, all of which were testing some of the new tabulation efforts. All media agencies that have tested with Warner Bros. continue to work with the company on its measurement efforts, says Zapata.
