currency

True cross-platform measurement is also on the industry’s mind, while local linear TV measurement falls further behind.

Another TV network group, Hallmark Media, has added VideoAmp as a “currency’ to make deals for advanced audiences and demographic guarantees. A year ago, VideoAmp said Hallmark Channel posted the best cable TV network results for its holiday season of programming in the fourth quarter for households with persons 18 years and older — as well as being tops among viewers 18-49 and 25-54, females 18-49, and females 25-54. VideoAmp says this ranking excludes broadcast, news, sports and kids’ networks.

Dentsu has struck deals with seven major media companies to do deals on the basis of its own, proprietary currency, dubbed “DELTA.” Importantly, the deals aren’t just with the biggest players, such as NBC Universal, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, which have been pushing the adoption of alternative advertising currencies, but smaller network suppliers, including Hallmark and A+E Networks, Dentsu SVP U.S. National Video Innovation Brad Stockton said during a presentation at the Advertising Research Foundation’s Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement in New York City Wednesday.

The measurement integration will enable transactions covering linear and total cross-platform reach for Paramount’s portfolio of networks and platforms.

As a currency for TV advertising, ratings leave far too much room for inaccuracies. It’s time to speed up the industry’s shift to impressions as the far superior alternative.

VideoAmp is tapped to be AMG’s primary and preferred currency provider.

The newly formed Joint Industry Committee aims to set measurement, currency standards by an aggressive March 1 deadline. 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.

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.

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.

Nielsen and agencies have cited a lack of Mediaocean integration as a barrier for new currencies, but VideoAmp and Comscore now have cleared it, and iSpot.tv could be next.

The new Distribution Dynamics and Program Availability Archive illuminate characteristics of content to enable data-driven decisions.

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.

IPG’s Mediahub unit this morning announced a deal with Spanish-language media giant Univision to utilize third-party performance data as a “currency” for ad buys on its media outlets. Describing it as a “first-of-its-kind partnership,” the companies said they would utilize data and analytics from two suppliers — EDO Inc. and DatafuelX — to measure consumer behavior and to “predict engagement performance” for ad campaigns across Univision’s linear TV networks.

The new initiative is designed to “formally mobilize a highly effective group of the top strategic minds in research, analytics and insights from TV publisher companies to accelerate the pace of overdue innovation in media measurement and currency.”