• by Wayne Friedman , March 2, 2015

For its 42 TV stations -- reaching some 50 million U.S. TV homes --  Tribune Media’s deal is for existing Nielsen local market stations' TV ratings, adding in Nielsen’s Out of Home (OOH) TV measurement and Return Path Data, which will come from set-top boxes to be incorporated into TV ratings.

In addition, Tribune will use Nielsen’s new Mobile TV Ratings in markets that use its Local People Meters.

Terms were not disclosed.

Local TV station groups have been vocal about what they say have been inaccurate and misleading TV viewership measures in many markets. Those TV metrics are key in selling advertising time to marketers.

“Expanding our access to more detailed audience research and analytics is extremely important to our company,” stated Larry Wert, president of Tribune Broadcast Media. “We use Nielsen data regularly, and we are glad to have them as partners as video viewing habits continue to rapidly evolve.”

Earlier in February, Tribune made some eye-opening headlines by striking a deal with Rentrak for its local market ratings services, including its automotive and political Advanced Demographics.

Rentrak had been furnishing ratings to Tribune’s stations in Cleveland and Des Moines since 2012, and renewed them as part of that agreement.