comScore

Investment company 180 Degree Capital Corp., which holds a 7% stake in Comscore, is looking to shake up its board of directors in order to boost the measurement company’s sagging stock price. In filings with the SEC, 180 Capital blamed the 78.5% drop in Comscore’s share price since the company was recapitalized in 2021 on a “dysfunctional” board.

Comscore reported a slim Q3 loss as revenues fell. The measurement company said it $1.7 million, or 2 cents a share, in the quarter, compared to a $56.3 million loss, or 60 cents a share, a year ago. Revenue fell 2% to $91 million.

The buy and sell sides need to come together to determine how best to measure converged audiences, executives from Nexstar, Sinclair and Fox Television Stations said during a TVNewsCheck panel last week.

Demand-side platform/DSP The Trade Desk has integrated a new suite of AI-powered audience segments from Proximic by Comscore that allow for capturing TV ad exposure down to the local level for political campaign audience targeting.

The integration makes Comscore an approved measurement vendor in Roku’s Measurement Partner Program and allows Comscore’s agency and advertiser clients to access Roku-specific co-viewing data across ad campaigns on the Roku platform, including The Roku Channel.

Nielsen challengers Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp were granted conditional certification as currency for buying and selling advertising by the U.S. Joint Industry Committee (JIC) set up by media companies to set modern standards for audience measurement in a multiplatform environment.

Revenue for the quarter was up 2.5% to $93.7 million. The net loss was $48.8 million, or 51 cents a share, compared to an $8.9 million loss, or 10 cents a share, a year ago.

The Joint Industry Committee looking to create standards for measuring television viewing, has come out with the scoring system it will use to evaluate measurement companies seeking certification from the JIC, including Comscore, InnovidXP, iSpot, SambaTV, VideoAmp and 605.

Buyers and sellers are still playing with alternative currencies such as VideoAmp, iSpot are Comscore, but nothing will take the place of C3/C7 ratings in a majority of this year’s upfront sales. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

Audience measurement firm Comscore has struck a deal with Magna, part of IPG Mediabrands, to use Comscore’s local television ratings to “inform” local TV buys across the organization. The companies said Comscore is the only alternative ratings service that will be used by Magna for local television. The firm also uses the Nielsen local ratings.

Hours after Nielsen issued a notice to clients Thursday reaffirming its support of Media Rating Council (MRC), it received its own endorsement from a strange bedfellow: Rival audience measurement service Comscore. “Comscore joins with Nielsen in support of MRC accreditation and their call for greater trust and transparency in the selling process and for currency that is informed by big data.” Comscore’s statement was issued just before OpenAP’s and the VAB’s “joint industry committee (JIC) began its upfront-style pitch on its ad currency certification plans to the ad industry in New York City Thursday afternoon.

Comscore is expanding its 48-hour reporting “Pulse” measurement service for all local TV stations — and national TV networks — in all 210 markets. This means Comscore can post data 48 hours after content airs in all markets. Previously, Comscore offered Pulse in the top 60 media markets, and in about half of those markets, advertisers and TV station clients could also get campaign pacing or demographic viewing-level data.

Warner Bros. Discovery says it will partner with Comscore and VideoAmp for “alternative currencies” when it comes to making deals with national advertisers across its linear TV and advanced advertising inventory for this year’s upfront ad market.

Comscore said it has launched a new division, Proximic by Comscore, dedicated to programmatic targeting. Previously known as Comscore’s activation team, the new unit’s capabilities can be accessed by clients through Basis Technologies, LiveRamp, SXM Media’s AdWizz, Xandr’s Invest DSP and Yahoo.

Comscore posted a loss in the fourth quarter as revenues edged up. The measurement company’s net loss was $3.76 million, or 4 cents a share, compared to a loss of $1.03 million, or 1 cent a share a year ago. The loss includes the payment of dividends on convertible preferred stock. Adjusted EBITDA was $12 million, compared to $12.4 million a year ago. Revenue rose 2% to $98.2 million.

As the television industry looks for better ways to measure viewers, NBCUniversal wants the audience metrics used to buy and sell advertising to take into account the quality of the video and how much it engages consumers. NBCU on Wednesday is holding its annual pre-upfront presentation highlighting its data and technology capabilities for advertisers. This year’s event is called One23.

Comscore joins the independent station’s portfolio of other research resources including Marshall Marketing, Scarborough, WideOrbit, Cox Reps Television Analytics and others.

While a highly public battle brews to break up Nielsen’s monopolistic hold on the national television measurement business, Comscore more quietly is making advances against Nielsen on the local ratings front. Media buyer Zimmerman Advertising, part of the giant Omnicom Media Group, will be testing Comscore data for use as local market currency.

Cross-channel TV advertising platform Simulmedia has made a deal with media measurement company Comscore to bolster its predictive TV program technology TV+ for entertainment marketers and other brands, in finding the right viewers to sample and engage with TV shows. Comscore’s custom audience segments will be incorporated into TV+ to help entertainment marketers target audiences across data-driven linear TV and connected TV.

Measurement company Comscore reported a larger-than-expected loss in the third quarter as it took big write-offs and charges. Comscore’s third quarter net loss was $52.4 million, or 60 cents a share, compared to a loss of $2 million, or 2 cents a share, a year ago. Contributing to the red ink were a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $45 million and restructuring costs of $5.6 million.

Comscore and Charter Communications have extended their data and measurement deal, with Charter giving Comscore credits of $4 million in 2002 and $3 million in 2003. According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the credits are being applied to the payments money-losing Comscore would have had to make to license Charter’s viewer data.

Measurement company Comscore said it is restructuring its operation, resulting in employee layoffs that will cost the company $6 million to $8 million in severance payments. Changes the company plans to make include reducing its data center footprint and lowering operating expenses including software and facility costs. Comscore said it might also quit certain businesses and exit some geographic regions.

Media agency Dentsu said it will shift its local TV buying to a Comscore-based currency, which will allow it to make transaction based on advanced audiences in all 210 markets. Dentsu media buying units include Carat, Dentsu X and iProspect. Dentsu reached an agreement to use Comscore for local TV measurement in February.

Comscore said that it made a deal with Fox Television Stations in which the stations will use Comscore-based currency to transact advanced audience advertising deals. Financial terms were not disclosed.

David Algranati is named CIO, Greg Dale is now COO and Jon Lieberman becomes CTO, while Chris Wilson, chief commercial officer, will be leaving the company.

Comscore said it reduced its second-quarter net loss as revenues rose 4.3%. The measurement company lost $5.1 million, or 10 cents a share, in the quarter, compared to $87.7 million, or 28 cents, a year ago. Adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization was $6.5 million, up from $2.6 million. Revenue was $91.4 million, up from $87.7 million.

Continuing dissatisfaction with and distrust in Nielsen is leading stations, agencies and brands to seek measurement alternatives. Note: This story is available to TVNewsCheck Premium members only. If you would like to upgrade your free TVNewsCheck membership to Premium now, you can visit your Member Home Page, available when you log in at the very top right corner of the site or in the Stay Connected Box that appears in the right column of virtually every page on the site. If you don’t see Member Home, you will need to click Log In or Subscribe.

Jon Carpenter is also eligible for short-term incentives and gets 400,000 restricted stock units.

He’s tapped to succeed current CEO and executive vice chairman Bill Livek who is retiring.

The media agency announced today it will test Comscore’s local TV measurement for the 2023 media buying and planning period.

Bill Livek, who announced plans to retire as CEO of Comscore at the end of 2022, bought 600,000 shares of Comscore stock for $1.15 million, according to a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. Livek purchased the shares on May 31 and June 1 for prices between $1.90 and $1.93 a share. He now owns 2.4 million shares of Comscore.

The measurement company said its first quarter net loss was $9.3 million, or 14 cents a share, compared to a $36 million loss, or 49 cents a share, a year ago. Adjusted EBITDA rose to $6.8 million from $5.6 million. Revenues increased 4% to $94 million from $90.3 million a year ago.

Building on more TV measurement tests from TV advertising sellers, Xandr, the advanced advertising/marketplace unit now owned by Microsoft, announced it has struck deals with six measurement companies in preparation for the upfront TV market. Comscore, EDO, Samba TV, TVision, VideoAmp, and 605 will work with Xandr’s buy- and sell-side advanced TV platforms — Invest TV and Monetize TV.

Effectv, the local advertising sales division of Comcast Cable, has struck a deal with Comscore, for its local TV measurement product, to be a “new form of currency” for Comcast’s local cable TV advertising deals. With the deal, Effectv will use Comscore’s audience impression-based measurement product for local advertising clients.

The Comscore/SMI eCPM solution provides unified metrics for evaluating, planning and optimizing audience-based campaigns on TV.

At a time when the ad industry is developing and testing a variety of alternate currencies for planning and buying media, Comscore has chosen a long-time Madison Avenue media-buying exec as its first “vice president of currency.” Elizabeth Daly, who most recently was VP-group media director of video investment at IPG’s Mediahub Worldwide unit, has been named to lead Comscore’s “currency initiatives,” the company said.

The tumultuous measurement space is getting upended yet again: Bill Livek, Comscore CEO and executive vice chairman, plans to retire after more than four decades in media measurement. But the Comscore chief won’t be leaving quite yet. He’ll transition into the role of non-executive vice chairman after his successor is named and plans to serve through the completion of his term in mid-2024.

Comscore, which has been losing money since problems cropped up in its financial reports five years ago, turned in positive net income of $29 million for the fourth quarter. Revenue was $96.5 million, up 7%.

DoubleVerify and Comscore say they formed a partnership to verify and measure cross-screen ad campaigns.The new service combines DoubleVerify’s “Authentic Ads,” a metric that verifies ads are fully viewed by a real person in a brand-suitable environment, with Comscore’s Campaign Ratings cross-platform product, which provides data on deduplicated reach and frequency across TV, connected TV, desktop and mobile.