As we’ve gotten deeper into the streaming era, it’s become ever clearer that the controversy over Nielsen ratings is not going away. Just this month, as the new football season got underway, the NFL became the latest party to throw down the gauntlet, accusing the TV ratings giant of “systematically undercounting” the league’s viewership.
Enter VideoAmp, one of the leading “alternative” currencies looking to challenge Nielsen’s dominance over TV audience measurement in the U.S. The company leverages first-party data to measure audiences across platforms, and has partnered with multiple media giants — including the NFL — to provide what it says is a more accurate picture of cross-platform viewership.
“We use a much bigger base [than Nielsen]; we have 40 million homes, 65 million devices. They were measuring everything off of a 42,000-home panel,” explained VideoAmp Chief Marketing Officer Jenny Wall, referring to the infamous Nielsen panel used to extrapolate its ratings.
Even now that Nielsen has integrated device-level “Big Data” into its measurement, it’s clear that disputes over its numbers are going to persist.
“If you’re missing 15% of an audience for a live football game, that is pretty big for the brands, pretty big for the NFL, pretty big for the teams and pretty big for the advertisers,” Wall said.
On the latest episode of the Variety podcast “Strictly Business,” Wall dives deep into what it takes to measure TV audiences in the streaming era, as well as what it takes to disrupt industry norms, drawing on her experiences heading up marketing for both HBO and Netflix as they launched their paradigm-shifting slates of original series.
“I’m always looking for new things to do or disrupt,” she explained. “I want to help marketers and marketing departments look like revenue generators, not cost centers. And I love being able to show that there’s a better way.”
But unlike the streamers, Wall stresses, VideoAmp isn’t trying to make the traditional business models obsolete.
“We’re not saying, ‘Put Nielsen out of business.’ What we’re saying is, you need to have optionality to be able to compare what you believe and have leverage in the marketplace,” she said, and added, “I think the bottom line is, your life can be much easier if you just put a little work into it.”
“Strictly Business” is Variety’s weekly podcast featuring conversations with industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. A new episode debuts each Wednesday and can be downloaded on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher and SoundCloud.