More Local Measurement Improvements. Nielsen Replacing Local Live Stream Only Data with Live+1

In looking back at the past year, we have seen seismic change in Nielsen’s local market measurement capabilities, stemming from a focus on improvements from increased and varied datasets to sample expansion. Now, starting in July, Nielsen will measure local performance on Live+1, which more closely aligns with consumer behavior viewing habits and national measurement, providing, according to Steve Lanzano, President and Chief Executive Officer, TVB, “more GRPs for stations to sell.”

Overall Local Measurement Improvements

In 2017 alone, Nielsen local measurement evolved to an all-electronic measurement for all 210 DMAs, incorporated return path data into all markets including the 140 still served by paper diaries, expanded Scarborough consumer behavior data into 59 more local markets up from the current 151 DMAs, added Comcast, Dish and AT&T’s DIRECTV and U-Verse set top box data, and added portable people meter data to enable local out-of-home measurement across all sized markets. Nielsen also announced that they would expand their panel by 15,000 TV audience meters in 7,000 homes across the 140 markets currently measured by local TV paper diaries as part of their effort to completely retire the diaries in early 2018.

Live+1 Measurement

Most recently, Nielsen responded to an industry request, as represented by the 4As and the TVB, to replace local live stream only data with Live+1, resulting, as Nielsen noted, in a more comprehensive metric of how consumers are viewing local content, especially as it reflects the daily and time-shifted viewing habits of consumers.

Monthly data will be available starting in July and daily reports (reporting on each Live+27 hour viewing window) will begin with the September reporting period (end of August.) The data will be available on all third-party media buying systems including Mediaocean, Strata, and WideOrbit, to ensure Live-Same Day and Live+1 data streams are reliably delivered and accessible via their respective platforms. Live+1 includes all live viewing plus any delayed viewing conducted within 24 hours of a program’s telecast including DVR playback as well as viewing in the buffer, a form of playback without setting the recording through the DVR.

For Nielsen, Live+1 more closely represents the new viewing habits of today’s households, where consumers are starting programs but then pausing them and finishing them at their own pace and viewing programs on other devices that do not follow traditional program airing schedules.

Industry Reaction

This has been met with a positive response by the industry as a way to better integrate local and national performance results. Kathy Doyle, Executive Vice President, Local Investment, MAGNA Global, noted that this initiative will move the needle for local. “At MAGNA, we have been exploring the possibility of moving Local TV investment to Live +1 currency for some time.  We’re pleased that Nielsen will begin to provide the data stream and appreciate having the ability to utilize a currency that gets closer to national,” she stated.

Where do we go from here? Lanzano doesn’t want to speculate on the next metric. But, “with advancement in technology and media measurement, it could be something very different than current data streams such as total audience measurement across all distribution channels and devices that a specific piece of content runs across. And ATSC 3.0 will provide data and measurement as good as anything else out there,” he concluded.

This article first appeared in www.MediaVillage.com

Q&A Interview with Shereta Williams, President, Videa.

Shereta Williams, President of Videa grew up on a farm in rural Georgia before moving to Boston to study electrical engineering at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Her career has taken her from financial start-ups and mergers and acquisitions at Lazard to Cox Media Group. She is currently the president of Videa which, she says is “a Cox-Media-Group-backed supply-side platform bringing automation and data-driven decision-making to broadcast television.”

Williams sees a great synergy in her expansive background. She states that ”I am driven by a desire to create value and all of the paths leading to my current role – farming, finance and engineering – are ultimately about creating growth.  In the following interview she talks about her work with broadcast networks, TV measurement and the future of TV programmatic and the media environment in general.

CW: Tell me about your company, current job and projects?

SW: Videa brings automation and data-driven decision-making to broadcast television. We debuted earlier this year and recently announced over 10 strategic partnerships including Mediaocean, Videology, and Raycom to bring audience-driven buying and new demand to spot television. I lead the organization in overall strategic and product direction. I have over a decade of experience with Cox in various investment, strategy and development roles focused on digital media. We launched our beta product this past December and officially debuted at the 2015 National Association of Broadcasters Show. We are launching our commercial product this fall.

CW: What type of strategic partnerships – can you be more specific?

SW: Videa is currently working with seven key broadcast partners including Gannett, Raycom, Media General, Graham Media, and Cox as well as major advertising agencies including Carat / Amplifi and Starcom to enhance and simplify the buying and selling of TV advertising. In April of this year, Videa inked a key partnership with Mediaocean to provide agencies unprecedented speed, efficiency and transparency to traditional local broadcast media transactions. As part of the agreement, Videa will be the supply partner for broadcast inventory that will be initially available through Mediaocean’s Spectra.

CW: Do you work with just broadcast or do you also work with cable networks?

SW: We work with broadcasters. By utilizing our platform, local broadcasters can now leverage automation and data to enhance existing selling approaches and increase demand to their inventory. Our solution optimizes inventory, simplifies workflows and increases revenue for broadcasters.

CW: Where do you think programmaticTV is today?

SW: Programmatic buying has been one of the biggest buzzwords this year in the traditional media ecosystem. Until about 18 months ago, programmatic buying was mostly restricted to the digital display business. And nearly 40 percent of all U.S. digital ad spend is expected to be conducted through programmatic buying transactions in 2015 according to eMarketer. Now, programmatic practices are more commonly applied to the sale of other media including TV.

Programmatic buying has become a viable and growing option for TV advertising this year and the multibillion dollar local market is in play – spot TV, in particular. In programmatic, buying is more automated and the targeting method of choice is based on audience spending insights as opposed to broad demographics. Today programmatic TV offers a variety of benefits, which improve the standard linear TV advertising model. For example, having an automated buying process saves time for ad buyers and sellers since many of the resource-heavy elements of these transactions can be streamlined. Additionally, advertisers can add consumer spending data to their purchasing plan to ensure they target viewers with the most appropriate messaging.

CW: Where do you think it will be in 2017?

SW: In 2017, advertisers will be able to purchase audiences across platform (digital and TV) based on enhanced data attributes more efficiently than they can buy stand-alone digital and TV today. It will allow for relevant messages to consumers and more engagement with audiences.

CW: Do you think TV measurement metrics will change from the current Nielsen currency?

SW: I think measurement will change over time to include more spending, behavioral and psychographic data in addition to demographic and viewing data. So I’m not sure Nielsen goes away so much as it gets augmented with additional information on who is viewing what.

CW: Give me some predictions regarding television and how it will look in the next five years.

SW: I think I saw a quote somewhere that “TV is the new TV” and I think that’s right. TV companies invest a tremendous amount of resources in creating quality, engaging content and that investment will allow them to continue to extend their audiences and business models across all platforms – online, OTT, mobile, etc. The content bundles, currencies and distribution models may be different but the providers and their ability to pair advertisers with their audiences will continue. I do think there are likely to be some new networks that emerge from MCNs but the existing networks will evolve and grow as well.

This article first appeared in www.Mediapost.com

Is On Demand Ready For Primetime Anytime?

We appear to be tantalizingly close to a more comprehensive business, delivery and measurement strategy for On Demand. But perhaps not close enough to create an industry standard just yet. The recent B&C On Demand Summit offered insights into what is being done well, what we can do better and what still needs to be accomplished in the On Demand arena.

There is a lot of good news according to experts in the industry. The number of enabled platforms is increasing, the cost of distribution is declining and the window for dynamic ad insertion is shortening.  Brands are beginning to integrate with content to offer a seamless viewing experience. Research companies are energetically examining second by second return path data that is being matched to IP data and there is greater flexibility than ever in content creation, delivery and access.

As the conference progressed it became clear that there are some important actions that need to be taken sooner than later - those areas where the On Demand business needs to focus to get to an industry standard. A short video that captures some of these topics is linked to here. 

Here are my top ten On Demand issues and next step: Please comment.

Cannibalization – Cannibalization is not inevitable according to Jim Packer from Lionsgate. But there needs to be a careful balancing act for content providers so that content that is available on demand and across platforms does not cannibalize the primary source of the main business, whether linear or in theater, for example.

DAI – The technology is not there yet for more real time insertion. There are still some structural issues to get it closer to almost real time. Thankfully Canoe is focusing all of its energies on addressing DAI.

Transparency – This is primarily a data access issue that is being addressed by Rentrak in partnership with MediaOcean. Agencies will be able to view a transparent transaction report of 60 networks free of charge.

Data merging and measurement – Even though agency software company MediaOcean is beginning to integrate new datasets into its systems (an important step), On Demand data and measurement in general continue to be an area in need of more development. Improvements in data standardization and metrics are being spearheaded via the IAB and the MRC is starting to accredit certain services and methodologies. We need to keep pursuing measurement solutions as a top priority. And let’s not forget the importance of asset identification to facilitate cross platform measurement trackage. 

Scale – How do you get to scale with VOD? It seems that issues like content rights and measurement need to be addressed to help create scale. 

Agency silos – Some agencies are stratified when it comes to media purchasing so broadcast and cable are separate buying departments from digital. Silo’ing is not an efficient way to maximize the purchase value of VOD. Many agencies, realizing this challenge, are being to break down these silos but there is still work to be done in this area.

Valuation- How do you value VOD? Some think of it as an extension of cable. Agency budgets need to migrate and the disparity of CPMs across platforms needs to be addressed. Mike Bologna of GroupM suggested defining hyper target segments so VOD is not just “more cable inventory”.

Educating clients beyond age and gender – VOD enables hyper niche marketing but clients may still gravitate to the simpler age gender categories. Nick Troiano of BlackArrow noted that from a business perspective CPMs for A18-49 offers a higher CPM but hyper-targeting is more efficient. 

Content rights – Let’s face it, rights are expensive. Especially when the content is new and performance is unknown. But without taking the chance of acquiring all the content rights for a program, there is a marketing challenge (brands cannot fully integrate) and a data challenge (the landscape of VOD becomes incomplete for full measurement). 

Rate of change – The rate of change seems to be accelerating. Conference s such as those offered by Mediapost and MultiChannel/B&C continue to bring new and innovative ideas to the industry and help executives keep up to date.