Dive Brief:

• Nielsen is suing measurement competitor comScore in the U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York to prevent its rival from using Nielsen technology to launch a competing TV-focused measurement service, per MediaPost.
• The lawsuit stems from the terms of a 2014 agreement between the two measurement companies that gave comScore the ability to use Nielsen technology measurements for both online and TV audiences as a cross-platform service, but did not allow comScore to use the data for a standalone TV measurement service. At the time of the agreement, Nielsen told federal regulators it wouldn’t discourage competition for cross-platform services that incorporated both TV and digital audiences. The suit means to stop comScore from launching its “Extended TV” service which would use Nielsen’s proprietary Portable People Meter data.
• Nielsen’s agreement with comScore stemmed from its 2013 deal to purchase Arbitron, and the new lawsuit contends Extended TV would harm its business through decreased market share. ComScore argued in a letter that the service qualifies as cross-platform and isn’t limited to linear TV.

Dive Insight:

The conflict between Nielsen and comScore highlights just how important third-party measurement has become for marketers, with measurement companies jockeying to shore up their positions. In 2017, big advertisers like P&G are demanding more transparent digital measurement as they take a closer look at where they are spending their ad dollars. 

The legal suit also lays open how the process of measurement can be sometimes contentious and ambiguous as a result of different technology and formulas to the increasingly blurred lines between traditional linear TV, online activity and even offline behavior like in-store visits. All these different consumer touch points can be measured and attributed against each other and measurement companies often boast their own unique approach the combining them as an important differentiating factor. 

At one time, linear TV was the key measurement brands wanted, and Nielsen ruled that roost. As digital marketing grew, online measurement became more valuable, leading Nielsen to make deals like the one with comScore that would keep it in place as a player in marketing measurement across channels. These agreements were also made to keep regulators off Nielsen back and allow it to keep its linear TV supremacy.

However, marketing measurement no longer falls into neat channel buckets. For one, linear TV campaigns are no longer seen by many brands as solely linear TV campaigns. Instead they are seen as video ad campaigns where creative is deployed on multiple marketing channels including digital ads, on social media platforms, on over-the-top digital TV and of course linear TV. For comScore, which made a name for itself in digital measurement, it needs to have a stronger position in TV as the space becomes increasingly digitally driven. For these brands, linear TV is just one of many outlets for the video ad campaign and that measurement does not stand alone, but is part of a larger measurement figure taking every marketing channel into account.