Former Paramount Television Studios executive Jenna Santoianni has joined MRC as president of television. She will replace Elise Henderson who is leaving the company after a four-year stint. The personnel change comes on the heels of Scott Tenley’s elevation to CEO as part of a new executive structure the studio announced last week, with co-founders Modi Wiczyk and Asif Satchu assuming the new roles of chairmen. (Jonathan Golfman and Brye Adler continue as co-presidents of film and Amit Dey as head of nonfiction.)
Nielsen, which has been touting that Nielsen One, its new cross-platform measurement system, is on track, quietly informed clients last week that the “big data” on which the platform relies isn’t ready to be used to make transactions. Nielsen had planned to include its big data — information on viewing from set-top boxes and smart TVs — in its national TV ratings in September and have clients use it as currency in the scatter advertising market. Nielsen has been trying to get its new national ratings system incorporating big data accredited by the Media Rating Council but a meeting scheduled for today (Aug. 25) was postponed.
An arbitrator rules that the actor’s pattern of sexual harassment caused damage to MRC and flouted…An arbitrator rules that the actor’s pattern of sexual harassment caused damage to MRC and flouted contractual obligations.
The support came after the Media Rating Council suspended Nielsen’s accreditation, which prompted reaction in some quarters.
MRC has tapped NBCUniversal alum Adam Stotsky as president of the newly created MRC Live & Alternative, which will absorb the operations of Dick Clark Productions. MRC has slowly been phasing out the Dick Clark Prods. moniker. Stotsky will oversee a division that produces major awards franchises including the American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards and ABC’s annual New Year’s Eve special Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest.
The Media Rating Council ripped Nielsen’s “deep-rooted, ongoing performance issues” in a statement. That followed Nielsen’s declaration that it would seek to take a hiatus from the Council’s accreditation process.
Exclusives
The respective parent companies of Variety and The Hollywood Reporter announced a joint venture Wednesday that effectively merges the two oldest and biggest show business trade publications, housing them in a joint venture controlled by Variety and Deadline owner Penske Media Corp.
The Media Rating Council (MRC) this morning published a notice advising media audience measurement services to have “objective criteria in place” to ensure they maintain “data quality in the face of unprecedented challenges presented by the current coronavirus crisis.”
In regards to recent changes Nielsen has made to its TV market measurements, the Media Ratings Council says its accreditation of these markets has remained unchanged.
The new venture announced Thursday is called Valence Media and combines the Billboard-Hollywood Reporter Media Group, Dick Clark Productions and film and television studio MRC. MRC co-founders Asif Satchu and Modi Wiczyk will lead Valence as co-CEOs.
Building on comScore’s recent MRC accreditation for SIVT filtration, this new accreditation targets cross-platform campaign planning.
The marketing industry’s Media Rating Council has held recent talks with Facebook about auditing its measurement methodologies, which have come under scrutiny following the company’s own admission that some of its numbers have been wrong.
For a very long time, media buyers and planners have been pushing for a gross ratings point, a way to compare online ad buys to those made in other media. That time is not yet here, but it’s getting closer. The Media Rating Council has lifted a ban on using viewable impressions as the currency for online buys, ending a moratorium established in November 2012.
The ratings service will get a comprehensive audit of its TV Essentials and StationView Essentials services by an independent CPA firm engaged by the MRC.
Three years after the national TV advertising marketplace shifted to C3 ratings — live average commercial minute ratings plus three days playback viewing — the system was finally accredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC). A year after that, the rest of the world found out. The lag time between the accreditation and its full disclosure raises many questions about transparency in the current ratings system, the role of the MRC and why Nielsen itself was so lackadaisical in confirming the news, earlier this year.
The Media Rating Council has revoked its accreditation for Nielsen’s 154 diary-only local TV market reports, effective with the 2009 audit period.
