• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, September 13, 2012

Online research giant comScore is teaming with the radio industry’s Arbitron Inc. to launch what they claim to be the “first-ever five-platform” audience measurement service simultaneously tracking video, audio and display content across radio, TV, PCs, smartphones and tablet computers.

The new service will provide persons-level data by integrating the array of audience measurement services offered by both companies, including comScore’s census and panel-based PC, mobile and TV set-top systems, with Arbitron’s portable people meter technology.

The companies announced that ESPN would be a charter client, and will “collaborate on the design” of the service, including how it will measure and report ratings for video, audio and display content via television (both in-home and out-of-home), online and mobile video, PC web, mobile web, apps, tablets, digital audio and terrestrial radio.

“This initiative lays the foundation for a national-scale, continuously operating, syndicated cross-platform measurement solution for the media and marketing industries,” the companies said in a statement announcing the initiative this morning. “The goal is to produce common metrics across all platforms at the scale and granularity required by both content providers and advertisers, and to demonstrate the audience reach and duplication of each media platform.”

ESPN, comScore and Arbitron will unveil details of the new service during a series of events on October 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd as part of Advertising Week in New York.