Comscore’s system for measuring national and local household-level TV viewing has been accredited by the Media Rating Council.
At a time when measurement companies are scrambling to offer alternatives to Nielsen, which has dominated the TV ratings business, Comscore becomes the first to win what is considered the industry’s Good Housekeeping seal of approval for a methodology that employs big data from set-top boxes and smart TVs to analyze the current more fragmented viewing environment.
Comscore is also the only measurement provider whose local measurement is accredited and the first to be approved in all 210 measured local markets based on device tuning measurement.
Nielsen regained the accreditation for its old national ratings system based on its panel of about 40,000 metered homes. Nielsen’s system for adding big data to its panel data is being reviewed by the MRC. Its local ratings system lost its accreditation and has yet to get it back.
Newer measurement companies iSpot.tv and VideoAmp have engaged the MRC in order to pursue accreditation.
With the TV industry’s annual upfront ad-buying season approaching, accreditation is a feather in Comscore’s cap.
“We see this as a very big deal. The MRC continues to be the gold standard for audience measurement,” Comscore CEO Jon Carpenter told Broadcasting+Cable.
In the competition among measurement companies, “this gives us a big leg up,” he said. “To go into the upfront with essentially the only product that's accredited in the marketplace, that's a that's a big deal. It's no longer about one single=source panel solution in the market. There are other choices here, and this one's a pretty darn good credible one.”
Carpenter said Comscore’s methodology is different, building up from ground up at the household level, which gives Comscore a consistency across its local and national ratings.
Comscore’s linear ratings are also the foundation of its cross-platform measurement, which is what clients are looking for now.
“Linear TV is still the most effective vehicle for reach, so any cross-platform product that doesn't include high-quality linear TV data at the scale that Comscore delivers, both nationally and locally, is missing a significant mark.” he said. “And the fact that we've got an accredited product that underpins our cross-platform product in addition to what it does to our traditional TV measurement product I think is incredibly important.”
The accreditation comes at a time when the MRC is busier than its ever been, with new competitors to Nielsen using big data, more digital players looking for validation and retail media networks looking to use their first-party data to sell advertising, said MRC CEO George Ivie.
“We think this is a major milestone for Comscore, and its opens the door for in the future even more accreditations from them,” Ivie said.
With the accreditation, “If you're a user of Comscore you now can have confidence that Comscore reports to you things like standard errors sampling and non-sampling error, The KPIs are calculated accurately.”
The MRC will be auditing Comscore annually. “To be accredited means you're making a long-term commitment to transparency and validation.”
For a time after the pandemic, there was no accredited TV audience measurement service
“This is the definitely the longest we've ever been without a local accredited service and this comscore announcement will begin to fill that void,” Ivie said. “I think it'll create momentum like for the need to be accredited.”
The changes in the way viewers consume TV means new measurement methods are required, especially with advertisers looking to reach more specific target audiences.
“It's generally becoming known that a panel standing alone is not really sufficient to measure some of these nuanced audiences,” Ivie said.
“Then you have the other all currency vendors that are stepping forward that all of them are leveraging larger data sets, he said.
According to Ivie, iSpot has requested a proposal from the MRC to to audit its audience measurement product. iSpot should have that proposal soon.
VideoAmp is in a pre evaluation process, in which the MRC’s CPA’s walk through VideoAmp’s methodology to flag any big methodological gaps that might keep it from easily achieving accreditation, Ivie said. The CPA’s report should be sent by the end of the month.
Meanwhile Nielsen is addressing some of the MRC’s audit findings regarding its big-data methodology. “We're going to be making decisions on the accreditation probably in a couple of months time,” Ivie said.
Nielsen CEO Karthik Rao congratulated rival Comscore on getting the MRC’s blessing.
“The more accredited data there is in the marketplace the better it is for everyone—buyers, sellers, viewers and all of us devoted to the science of audience measurement,” Rao said in a LinkedIn post.
After the SEC found irregularities in its books, Comscore was hamstrung by a long-running re-auditing process. It was recapitalized and has been trying to rebuild since Carpenter joined the company in 2021. .
“What you've seen from this team that's been in place now for the last 18 months is a commitment to deliver and we've already out of the gate had some very big announcements,” he said, noting big deals with Nexstar Media Group, Tegna and The Trade Desk.
“This is a nice win here at a point in time, but there's still plenty of wood to chop,” Carpenter said. “Our goal is to continue to deliver for our clients and that means continuing to provide solutions that deliver cross-platform capability that's unmatched.”
Accreditation is a rigorous process that includes an independent audit conducted by a CPA firm engaged by the MRC, and a review of the audit report by a committee comprised of MRC member organization representatives.
MRC accreditation signifies that Comscore’s methodologies and processes meet the organization’s industry established standards, designed to ensure transparency and accountability in measurement.
“We spent thousands of hours at Comscore. And in fact we have audited Comscore more than once for them to achieve this accreditation over a period of years,” said Ivie. “This has been a very rigorous demanding process. They're really to be congratulated for what they have done.”
The Media Rating Council is a non-profit industry association established in 1963/ Its goal is to ensure measurement services are valid, reliable and effective.
