The explosion of connected TV advertising over the past few years kickstarted a mad rush for user data and programmatic partnerships for better video ad measurement. This surge ultimately landed content measurement on the backburner.
Compared to ad inventory, measuring actual content has been less of a priority for measurement companies in the current streaming TV era, said Jackelyn Keller, a TV ad sales veteran who became Comscore’s CMO earlier this month. Keller previously held stints at Discovery, Turner, Univision and Samsung Ads.
But as publishers lean even more heavily into content bundling and distribution, it’s imperative for publishers to be able to effectively monetize their own content and platforms, she said.
To help bridge the advertising and content gap, Comscore released a new video measurement tool on Thursday to help publishers and content owners monetize their IP with a better understanding of media consumption patterns – not just ad performance. The idea, Keller said, is to help publishers make smarter decisions about distributing or acquiring content in addition to programmatic sales.
Launch partners include NBCUniversal, Google, Paramount and two other publishers.
Content is still king
Comscore Content Measurement (CCM), as the product is called, sits in the same platform as its campaign ratings and Comscore TV, its national and local measurement product that got MRC accreditation in March.
The new offering combines audience and contextual insights about content across social, mobile and desktop in addition to streaming and traditional TV. With all that information in one place, pubs can view audience segments based on demographic, interests and content consumption patterns, including what shows they’re watching and where, said Jen Carton, SVP of product management. Carton, another new addition to Comscore, joined the company in October after spending ten years on Nielsen’s product team. (Carton came from Arbitron, which Nielsen bought in 2013.)
CCM is “ultimately a planning tool” to help publishers figure out how to value their content so they can make more effective distribution deals and programmatic partnerships, Carton said.
For example, publishers can decide whether they want to distribute their content on free ad-supported TV channels or even other streaming services based on whether their audiences are watching similar shows elsewhere. The hit show “Yellowstone” was a Paramount original, for example, but some viewers like Keller watched it on Peacock. The NBC show “Suits” was released on Peacock and Netflix at the same time. HBO has also been licensing more shows to Netflix.
Programmers can also make more informed decisions about how to bundle certain content and how to price the rights to certain IP, Keller said. With that insight, she added, publishers would also have a better idea of how to price the ad inventory within that IP programmatically, which would help them make decisions about which supply-side platforms they want to work with.
Another use case for Comscore’s latest measurement tool is to help platforms pitch themselves as a home for content that publishers are looking to distribute or offload.
Take YouTube, for example, which has been trying to convince media buyers for years that it’s a premium streaming service comparable to digital pure plays like Netflix and Prime Video. Better insights about the types of viewers watching its videos would put YouTube in an even better position to compete with other programmers for content rights, Carton said.
Whichever way publishers look at it, she added, maximizing the value of their content is what helps publishers profit.
Update 1/17/25: This article was updated to clarify which Comscore product is accredited by the MRC.
