New Delhi: Media and entertainment major ViacomCBS on Tuesday announced its partnership with software and data platform, VideoAmp for TV measurement data, possibly leading the way for other networks as they explore alternative means of counting their audiences.
The announcement comes weeks after the US industry watchdog Media Rating Council (MRC) suspended the accreditation of Nielsen’s TV rating service. The suspension of the decades-old TV rating service followed a long standoff between Nielsen and the networks over the former’s services, including discrepancies in the data shared by the company during the pandemic. It was for the first time since the 1960s, that Nielsen’s measurement lost a “seal of approval” from the industry that uses it, leading advertisers and TV networks to seek alternate means of counting their audiences.
According to the partnership announced on Tuesday, VideoAmp will provide ViacomCBS with an alternative currency to plan, transact and measure national media campaigns accelerating the company’s multi-currency strategy. ViacomCBS which owns CBS, cable networks including Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, and ad-supported streaming services Pluto TV and Paramount Plus will leverage VideoAmp’s proprietary commingled TV Viewership dataset to guarantee linear media transactions against age and gender demographics.
“The measurement marketplace needs diversification. VideoAmp is an innovator who can help us accelerate our vision around the future of currency. We are excited to leverage their platform to bring better insights and better measurement to advertisers and their agencies,” said ViacomCBS COO of advertising revenue John Halley in a statement.
Additionally, the media and entertainment company will utilise VideoAmp’s data as an underlying currency to create and guarantee delivery of media campaigns against customised advanced audience segments through Vantage, ViacomCBS’ advanced advertising platform. Vantage is a sophisticated data-targeting platform, offering predictive modeling, continual optimisation, and insights to help advertisers understand their audiences and how best to reach them.
Meanwhile, VideoAmp aspires to redefine the way media is valued, bought, and sold. “The VideoAmp dataset is known for its scale as well as its proprietary methodology of combining STB and ACR data into a unified dataset, which enables a de-duplicated view of media delivery and advertising performance against any audience across traditional TV, streaming video, and digital media,” said the data platform in a statement.
“We are thrilled to be partnering with ViacomCBS as an alternative currency as they go into a new broadcast season. We truly value ViacomCBS and its forward-thinking strategy when it comes to a new era of media transaction, measurement, and, ultimately, the currency options that power it. We want to unlock value for publishers in a privacy-safe way that keeps their audiences at the forefront, regardless of the channel they’re using,” said VideoAmp CEO and co-founder Ross McCray.
