Nielsen Will Count Hulu And YouTube In Ratings; OOH Gets More Digital

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Following The Eyeballs

Nielsen will count viewership on YouTube’s and Hulu’s skinny bundles as part of its official TV ratings, reports Alex Bruell for The Wall Street Journal. Nielsen will measure Hulu and YouTube programs on its C3 and C7 metrics, which assess viewing within three to seven days of airing, across desktop and mobile. Hulu and YouTube join Sling TV, Playstation Vue and CBS All Access as OTT providers measured by Nielsen, but “this is the first time we see major digital distribution platforms like Hulu and YouTube coming into the TV ratings,” said Megan Clarken, president of product leadership at Nielsen. Nielsen will only measure the ads on Hulu and YouTube that also air on live TV. More.

Get Outta The House

Out-of-home (OOH) advertising is definitely going from a deeply siloed marketing channel and becoming part of the greater digital ecosystem. TouchTunes Media, which operates a network of screens, games and digital jukeboxes in bars and venues, inked a deal with DOmedia and Rubicon Project for programmatic access. Clear Channel, which integrated some of its digital signage with Rubicon’s OOH marketplace late last year, announced a collaboration with Cuebiq to add mobile analytics and attribution for advertisers using its advanced advertising suite. Vistar Media, a startup OOH media firm, will now support the VAST video ad format. “This allows media owners to accept the standard digital creative format from the online world, opening new sources of demand,” reads the release.

Taking Measurements

Measurement companies are staying hydrated in the ongoing ad tech funding drought. In addition to Oracle’s $850 million purchase of Moat [AdExchanger coverage], analytics company SimilarWeb received $47 million in funding and companies like Alphonso TV, Conversion Logic and Open Up have also racked up funding this year, reports Ross Benes for Digiday. And DoubleVerify is actively exploring a sale [AdExchanger coverage]. Measurement firms are hot with investors right now because they promise to make sense of an industry riddled with complexities and discrepancies. “There are startups going after this space,” says tech angel investor Eric Franchi. “Some of the current products were built for a different era, so [measurement startups] are looking at a 20-year problem in a more modern way.” More.

Skinny Viewership

Can the skinny bundle – the code name for TV channels streamed over the internet – save the day for content owners? Maybe not, according to new data from independent research firm MoffettNathanson. Although streaming TV services have been billed as a way for traditional networks, plagued by declining ratings, to recoup cord cutters, many of these services are, “at best, break-even or money losers,” Craig Moffett told Bloomberg. Meanwhile, skinny bundles only account for about 60% of households who have dropped their pay TV service, while competition for subscriptions among Sling TV, YouTube, PlayStation Vue, Hulu and DirecTV Now is at an all-time high. More.

But Wait, There’s More!