Dive Brief:

• Roku claims to be the first over-the-top TV platform to offer demographic guarantees based on Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings, the company said in a press release.
• The move enables marketers to measure campaigns on the Roku platform using demographic metrics comparable to what is available for linear TV ads, thereby providing a common currency for planning their investment mix. 
• “Roku is pushing the industry forward to adopt verification standards for media buying,” said Britney Greenhouse, director of video and digital investment, Horizon Media, in the release. “We have been working together with Roku to pilot the audience guaranteed product. We’ve seen positive match rates with Nielsen which are a good sign.

Dive Insight:

Roku is positioning the news as closing the gap between over-the-top and linear TV ad measurement. Research cited in the release supports the notion that TV advertisers should be considering OTT platforms, with 40% of Roku customers having either canceled or reduced traditional pay TV services. Additionally, Nielsen Total Audience Report found people between 18 and 24 watched 46% fewer hours of linear TV in Q3 2016 compared to Q3 2010 while a 2016 Nielsen report found TV connected devices counted for 23% of average weekly video minutes for people 18 to 34, more than double that of PC, smartphone and tablet combined.

Roku’s providing marketers with Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings demographic guarantees is just the latest example of the convergence of advertising on linear TV and digital channels. Ad dollars and audiences are flowing to digital video, like OTT options such as Roku, and digital has been actively smoothing the transition by adopting ad buying process and measurements that mimic what linear TV advertisers are already familiar with. This shift has been facilitated by Nielsen’s actively building a bridge between linear TV and digital video measurements.

While there has been some transfer back the other direction with linear TV gaining some targeting capabilities and metrics more associated with digital, OTT and other digital channels still have a leg up over linear TV on a fundamental technology level. Roku partnered with IDG Mediabrands Magna unit in January for targeting, programmatic workflows, interactivity, and audience measurement as one example of how digital video options can offer marketers a range of high-level data-driven features and measurements.