NBCUniversal Joins Alt-Currency Movement, Taps iSpot.tv For Next Upfront

January 2022 is shaping up to herald a Cambrian explosion of new video currencies.

NBCUniversal says it has picked iSpot.tv as its first cross-platform Certified Measurement Partner for cross-screen video, starting with a “test-and-learn” approach for the “alternative currency” with Publicis Media this Q1.

That will lead to “massive pilots” for the 2022 Olympic Winter Games and Super Bowl LVI.

Here is the NBCU press release.

In this video interview with Zach Rodgers for Beet.TV at the recent Beet Retreat Santa Monica, iSpot.tv’s Sean Muller explains how the approach.

Multi-currency moves

In recent weeks, the energy about the TV industry moving beyond its traditional Nielsen measurement system crystalized into reality – or, at least, an early chapter in the emerging story:

NBCUniversal was particularly critical last year of the measurement company.

Like those other companies, NBCUniversal isn’t all-in with the one supplier. In its announcement, it says iSpot.tv is “one of its preferred partners for quantifying and unifying cross-screen media consumption, reach and impressions”.

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But it does say the move “will lay a new foundation for how NBCUniversal transacts in the 2022-2023 Upfront cycle”.

Publicis Media will be the first to use the currency for measuring its opportunities across NBCUniversal’s One Platform portfolio.

That will give them real-time airing data for linear, streaming and time-shifted viewing, plus next-day reports including verified ad impressions, reach and frequency, linear and streaming overlap and incrementality.

Measurement will be provided at the household level as well as at the person level for age/gender demos and/or for customized audience segments.

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“We definitely obviously support a multicurrency world. We think that’s better for the industry,” iSpot.tv’s Muller says.

But Muller says many of the emerging crop of alternative currencies aim to simply replicate Nielsen’s approach using Big Data. He suggests a five-point alternative approach:

  1. Cross-screen capability.
  2. Enhanced speed.
  3. Impact measurement.
  4. Measuring ads separately from programmes.
  5. Measuring completion rates for ads on TV.

“We have a fully-fleshed out attribution solution where we connect these media investments to business results, whether it’s web or offline or foot traffic or call centre data,” he says. “Secondly, we also measure the brand impact.”

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