January 25, 2023
3 TV Groups Form NewCoin To Investigate Local TV Metrics
- by Wayne Friedman , December 16, 2014
Another effort to change legacy local TV measurement systems now comes as three big TV station groups — Fox, Tribune Media, and Univision — have joined in a venture called
NewCoin LLC.
Along with Timeline Labs, NewCoin is a new data venture “aimed at addressing deficiencies in local market television audience measurement.”
The companies say the Dallas market will be used to develop and “beta test” the service before it moves to other locales. The test looks to share insights with the local advertisers for input and development.
Timeline Labs works with media companies and brands to analyze billions of social media messages daily in real-time. Timeline will use technology provided by SeaChange International “to deliver a comprehensive audience management solution.”
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For some time, local TV stations have complained about under-representation of TV viewership in their markets. Many groups have added TV viewership metric services from the likes of Rentrak to supplement long-time viewing measurement systems from Nielsen.
“We’re taking a clean slate approach to fix the current ratings system’s inability to measure the full TV audience,” stated Malcolm CasSelle, chief executive officer of Timeline Labs.
Larry Wert, president of Tribune Media, said: “We believe the NewCoin initiative could lead to a much needed accurate and comprehensive audience measurement solution across all platforms.”
Sounds like a positive move to me. I sincerely hope that this initiative develops as more than just another attempt to pressure Nielsen, but rather, as an honest exploration of what's really needed to define viewing in local markets. Of all of the issues that may be raised, however, sample size and attendant costs are one of the keys. No matter what measurement refinements are considered---and I'm all for that-----if, at the end, all that the stations can afford to pay for are samples of 500-1000, not the much larger ones required in most mid-sized and many major markets, then little will be gained and the findings will remain largely "unstable".