VAB Pushes Broader Guarantees Based On Households, Persons 2+

by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

TV advertising trade association the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) is recommending a shift to broader viewership guarantees, amid concerns over data stability for niche audiences, driven by declining linear TV ratings.

The VAB is guiding brands and TV networks to agree to audience guarantees based either on households or persons two years and older -- and dropping specific demographic-age guarantees such as 18-49 and 25-54.

The VAB says this guidance should go into effect immediately for current, near-term scatter market deals -- as well as the upcoming TV upfront marketplace that begins in early June and continues through the summer.

Brands begin to secure inventory through upfront advertising deals for the TV season starting in September and running though August of the following year.

“With 2026 buyers and sellers having such precision targeting insights refined so deeply on behaviors and identity that so surpass partial age/sex groupings, those aggregations seem outmoded and artificial,” says Sean Cunningham, chief executive office/president of the VAB.

Although making guarantees across wider audiences provides stability, Cunningham adds that brands can then use all the advanced targeting that comes with their first-party focused tools.

In addition, the VAB says, this will help evaluating with more of an apples-to-apples comparisons when brands make more cross platforms media buys.

This recommended change is occurring as linear TV networks -- broadcast and cable -- continue to lose audiences to alternative digital media channels, especially streaming platforms.

For some time now, Cunningham has been highly critical of Nielsen, pushing the measurement company to update its process to reflect new digitally focused fragmented viewing habits, especially coming from streaming, to offer more granular, transparent data for advertisers.

Late last year, he heavily criticized Nielsen's newly installed Big Data + Panel TV measurement system which started up for the TV season in September 2025 for its "deep instability" and "high variability".

audience-buying, data, media buying, media measurement, ratings, television, upfront, video

2 comments about "VAB Pushes Broader Guarantees Based On Households, Persons 2+".

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Joshua Chasin from KnotSimpler, January 6, 2026 at 3:58 p.m.
It's great to see that transacting network TV has finally reached the point it was at in 1968!
Reply

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, January 6, 2026 at 5:25 p.m.

Josh, the truth is that 18-49/25-54 GRPs were used as a way for sellers to guarantee total schedule audience tonnage --not show by show delivery--- and, at the time they represented 50-60% of the viewer "impressions". Now they constitute a distinct minority--20-25%. But these were never targeting metrics--though it seems that many of the participants didn't realize that.

What's reaslly interestng is that the retention of these outmoded "buyer graphics" today gives the buyers a huge edge over the sellers. By guaranteeing audience tonnage for only a fifth of their viewers the sellers are not fully monetizing their much larger older audiences. And, unlike the 1960s, the oldster of today is far more likely to be college educated and considerably better off financially than his 1960 counterpart--so such viewers have value for many advertisers. Why give them away?

A while ago A&E floated the idea of guarantees based on people 2+ or 18+ but the agencies protested that this would screw up their CPM trending so A&E backed off. If I were a seller I would seriously rethink my position on this--but please don't even think about using set usage ratings--go with people 2+ or better, 18+.