- A Metrics Miracle in
Metrics Insider on
12/09/2016
Josh Chasin is a poet -- and he knows it -- with this twist on a seasonal classic:" 'Twas the week before Christmas, when alone in my house/ I was finishing shopping, with a click of the mouse;/Then
I cleared out my browser cache, cookies deleted,/ In hopes of nefarious snooping, defeated."
- Advertising Works -- And How! in
Metrics Insider on
11/04/2016
Sometimes I worry that we digital cognoscenti can get so lost in the magic and elegance of all these awesome algorithms and Big Data assets, that we forget to take a step back and ponder the bigger
picture: the actual people out there on the other side of all those myriad screens.
- Advertising Works -- And How! in
Metrics Insider on
04/01/2016
Sometimes I worry that we digital cognoscenti can get so lost in the magic and elegance of all these awesome algorithms and Big Data assets, that we forget to take a step back and ponder the bigger
picture: the actual people out there on the other side of all those myriad screens.
- Inside Today's Digital Household in
Metrics Insider on
02/05/2016
There was a time when understanding consumer use of the Internet was relatively simple - way more complex than understanding engagement with any other medium, sure, but still relatively simple. All we
needed to deal with was engagement from computers. There were no tablets, no smartphones, no OTT; your thermostat wasn't a connected device.
- A Metrics Miracle in
Metrics Insider on
12/22/2015
Josh Chasin is a poet -- and he knows it -- with this twist on a seasonal classic:" 'Twas the week before Christmas, when alone in my house/ I was finishing shopping, with a click of the mouse;/Then
I cleared out my browser cache, cookies deleted,/ In hopes of nefarious snooping, defeated."
- For Best Results: Big Data, Meet Media Research in
Data and Targeting Insider on
12/21/2015
I've been thinking a lot about the deployment of Big Data assets in the digital space. Clearly, it is one of the most profound developments in digital metrics - and indeed, in our lives. The Internet
of Things is already here; we can pay with our watches, and we've got Google thermostats. But in our space, I worry that there is too much emphasis placed on "Big Data," and not enough on "Good Data."
Perhaps here the data scientist can learn from the media researcher.
- Rethinking Traditional Audience Measurement Through A Digital Framework in
Metrics Insider on
12/11/2015
What would a video measurement system look like if one were to zero-base such a solution today, with the tools we have at hand, given the measurement challenges we face, while unencumbered by legacy
systems?
- Let's Not Forget: Digital Advertising Moves Products in
Metrics Insider on
11/11/2015
Lately it seems as if every article I read about digital advertising is about viewability, fraud, or ad blocking. "No one's seeing my ads!" "Robots are seeing my ads!" "Robots are blocking my ads!"
It's enough to make the casual reader think the sky was falling. I'm starting to think we're all collectively guilty of "burying the lede": that digital advertising works, persuades consumers, moves
products.
- Rethinking Traditional Audience Measurement Through A Digital Framework in
Metrics Insider on
10/22/2015
What would a video measurement system look like if one were to zero-base such a solution today, with the tools we have at hand, given the measurement challenges we face, while unencumbered by legacy
systems?
- Rethinking The Single Currency Model in
Metrics Insider on
10/16/2015
One of the long-standing assumptions in audience measurement has been the notion of currency - and more to the point, of a single currency. I learned about the one-currency model in a very real way
working at Arbitron in the '80s and '90s. We won one single-currency battle: spot radio measurement, where we competed with Birch Radio. And we lost one: spot TV, where we competed with Nielsen. But
I'd like to offer a radical opinion. In the digital age, multiple transactional media currencies can, do, and will continue to exist. Indeed, they need to exist.
- Reading Matters
by
Dave Morgan
(Media Insider on
02/19/2026)
My former colleague Stephanie Doennecke at VideoAmp: "The only way kids today would read a book is if it was a TikTok challenge."
- Is It Smart To Turn All Sports Fans Into Sports Bettors?
by
Dave Morgan
(Media Insider on
02/05/2026)
I'm just going to say the same thing I say every time this topic comes up.If organized gambling is now a part of the rich tapestry of the sporting experience, as opposed to a dark taboo like when I was a kid, can we at least please Pete Rose in the freaking Hall of Fame?
- Nielsen Kicks Off New Co-Viewing Effort On Super Bowl Sunday
by
Wayne Friedman
(Television News Daily on
02/03/2026)
It looks to me like attentiveness/eyes-on/Resonance will be a separate measurement, integrated with the counting. Services like TVision, Adelaide, RMT, MediaProbe and others provide attentiveness/impression quality mesurement. When I was at VideoAmp, I advocated for open source atentiveness-- i.e., let the user decide which attentiveness provider they wanted to use in tandem with VideoAmp meaaurement. And Adelaide has an integration with Nielsen, I beloieve they have an integration with RealEyes as well.
- Nielsen Kicks Off New Co-Viewing Effort On Super Bowl Sunday
by
Wayne Friedman
(Television News Daily on
02/03/2026)
A comment, and a question.THe comment: I get that the industry refers to this as co-viewing, but really it's personification, which includes conversion of sets/HHs to persons counts, AND demographic assignmentd of these persons. It is the creation of demographic VPVH, inclusive of both co-viewing and demographic assignment (i.e., not just "2 viewers", but "2 viewers, one a 35 year-old male, the other a 28 year-old female.")THe question: what happens if the co-viewing collected in this fadshion is materially different from people meter-based co-viewing? (Spoiler alert: 100%, it will be.) In fact, perhapps more to the point, what happens if the Nielsen demographic skews from this new co-viewing methodology begin to resemble the demo skews of other bog data-based currencies? Does the improvement in Nielsen demopgraphic assignment potentially end up validating demo skews of competitors?
- NFL Bans Prediction Market Super Bowl Ads
by
Wayne Friedman
(Television News Daily on
01/29/2026)
"We'll have more on this fast-breaking story after a word from FanDuel!"
- FCC Pushes Late Night For Equal Time Laughs - Politically Speaking
by
Wayne Friedman
(TV Watch on
01/23/2026)
“The FCC has not been presented with any evidence that the interview portion of any late night or daytime television talk show program on air presently would qualify for the bonafide news exemption.”Similarly, one wonders if they've been preented with any evidence that these shows would qualify as news at all.The equal time rule stems from a time when video was distributed via the brpadcast airwaves, which were a finite resource owned by the public. The notion that the same guidelines and rules remain relevant today is preposterous.
- CIMM Finds Market Can Financially Support Two Ad Currencies
by
Joe Mandese
(Planning & Buying Insider on
01/22/2026)
I'm generally diainclined to comment on this topic, since the paper was a work for-hire by CIMM, who own it. But I think it's in bounds to say that the directive was very specifically to address the economics of currency. What does it cost to mount a service, and how many dollars are there available in the market?I worked at Arbitron in the '80s and '90s. I lived through Arbitron exiting the (local) TV business. At the time we used to say amongst ourselves that there was enough money to support a service and a half. But focusing strictly on the economics, thanks to the advent of Big Data, a company today can license enough Smart TV and STB data, and indeed can license access to a panel for calibration, all for substantially less than Nielsen spends a year on their national TV panel. So whether or not the dynamics of the business are hospitable to multiple currencies, given the costs to mount a competitive currency service today versus the dollars available, there is enough available spend to fund at least 2 competitors. THis has not always been the case._________ Note: one might ask, why was there enough money for both Nielsen and Arbitron before the mid-80s? I can answer that. Two reasons:(1) Because there weren't other things to spend research dollars on. Once services like Leigh Stowell, Marshall Marketing, Scarborough, and The Media Audit emerged, the willingness of broadcasters to buy two of the same thing evaporated quickly.(2) The expansion of metered measurement. It was far easier to afford 2 diary-based services than 2 meter-based services.By the late '80s, stations with 2 $750K ratings contracts woul simply not renew the dfirst one to expire. Then when the second one expired they'd go to each vendor and say, "$250K. Take it or leave it." One of us would take it.
- CIMM Finds Market Can Financially Support Two Ad Currencies
by
Joe Mandese
(Planning & Buying Insider on
01/22/2026)
Yes, Joe. The "fiesta" in question is the "multi-currency fiesta," as the marketplace was dubbed by Fox's Kym Frank at an early CIMM 2025 event.
- VAB Pushes Broader Guarantees Based On Households, Persons 2+
by
Wayne Friedman
(Television News Daily on
01/06/2026)
It's great to see that transacting network TV has finally reached the point it was at in 1968!
- Trump Media Goes Nuclear, Fuses With Power Player
by
Joe Mandese
(MediaDailyNews on
12/18/2025)
In what world is this legal?