Allen Media Group told advertisers at its upfront lunch on Wednesday in New York that it has retained VideoAmp to handle TV measurement.
“Nielsen does a horrible job,” said Allen Media Group founder and CEO Byron Allen. Allen has sued Nielsen for fraud, alleging that Nielsen measurement failure cost his company money.
“I’m not saying there shouldn’t be measurement. It has to be the right measurement,” Allen said.
VideoAmp is one of a number of tech-oriented companies offering an alternative to Nielsen. VideoAmp has deals with Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount and Fox's Tubi streaming service to provide data that can be used as currency for buying and selling advertising.
Allen Media Group will use VideoAmp data as currency first for The Weather Channel. VideoAmp data credits The Weather Channel with about 25% more viewers than Nielsen does, and more than double the nubmer of viewers 18 plus, the company said.
Allen noted that Nielsen’s measurement systems had been discredited by the Media Rating Council. The MRC suspended the accreditation of Nielsen’s national ratings service because it was unable to maintain its sample homes during the pandemic, resulting in viewing being undercounted. Earlier this month, the MRC restored its accreditation of Nielsen’s legacy national ratings service. Nielsen’s local ratings service remains unaccredited.
