Last rites for Nielsen...Again?

There’s not a broadcaster alive that hasn’t questioned Nielsen’s data during their career, and with good reason:

Sometimes things just don’t make sense.

We have all had a newscast that NSI overnights show had absolutely no one watching, a statistical impossibility that causes News Directors, GMs, GSMs and Research Directors to growl at their morning reports. Sinclair , whose website states that they are the “largest and most diversified television broadcasting company in the country today” recently advised their clients that that they were moving “exclusively” to comScore broadcast ratings beginning next year.

Looks like Nielsen is about to take a major hit.

Aside from the financial impact at Nielsen, the bigger question is how the agency and client community is going to react. On the heels of this announcement, I went straight to the Media Ratings Council (MRC) website to see if comScore had finally received MRC accreditation, something they have been working on since 2011. While several of the comScore products have received accreditation, their broadcast television product has not as of today. But, does it matter?

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Let’s be clear: agencies will push back, reps will counter, cost per points and CPMs will become even more unpredictable, make good weight and bonus weight will fill breaks until they get bumped, made good and bumped again.  So what else is new?

But at the end of the day, brands will still advertise on television because it continues to deliver ROI. Granted, broadcast television isn’t the shiny penny anymore, giving way to OTT streaming services, on demand, Facebook etc., but at the end of the day, broadcast still works. It’s still the extra large in the world of mediums. Don’t get me wrong, broadcasters have a healthy respect for the digital only players such as Facebook, Google, Netflix and Hulu, but at the end of the day, they are new entrants into the world of entertainment and marketing. Yes, they are significant, substantial winning platforms that if viewed with a limited scope look to be unstoppable, but then again, so did Tiger Woods just a few years ago. 

Is comScore akin to Bitcoin? Is this the emergence of a new advertising currency? I like much of what I’ve seen from comScore, and their acquisition of Rentrak was a bold move that created the first company since Arbitron capable of challenging Nielsen in the 21st century marketing environment.   Under their guidance, it appears that the Rentrak methodology is now closer than ever to getting the MRC seal of approval. Let’s see what happens, but for those of you who think that this is the beginning of the end for Nielsen, may I offer a different perspective?

Television is still the single most efficient and dominant way to reach and influence the masses. Despite their flaws, Nielsen is still the most experienced expert in the industry, and Jack Nicklaus is still the sport’s greatest champion.  Time will tell.

What do you think?