Kantar Media, long considered a rival to Nielsen’s mainstay TV measurement business internationally, is restructuring the way it goes to market. Although Kantar Media previously operated as one of 12 distinct brands within the Kantar Group, sometimes there was a lack of visibility between different brands. “We’ve had a very strange organizational structure,” admits Andy Brown, chairman and […]
ComScore replaced its CEO and rearranged its leadership team Wednesday amid an internal investigation of its accounting practices that started shortly after comScore and Rentrak completed their merger in February. Because of the ongoing investigation, which is being conducted with the help of independent counsel, comScore hasn’t reported Q1 or Q2 revenue. Co-founder Gian Fulgoni […]
ComScore has struck a measurement deal with Twitter to enable a tagless integration to its digital audience delivery and analytics system, validated Campaign Essentials (vCE). The integration will take effect in Q2 and will give advertisers access to digital GRPs and reach and frequency metrics. These new reporting features will be available directly within Twitter’s […]
ComScore and Rentrak have completed their merger, cinching a deal aimed at establishing new multiscreen currencies to rival TV ratings incumbent Nielsen. The all-stock deal was originally valued at $732 million based on market prices at the time the deal was announced in September. The merger, which gained shareholder approvals late Friday, represented $767.7 million in final deal value, […]
After an initial wave of integration, Millennial Media, the mobile ad platform AOL acquired in September for $240 million, rolled out its first ad product under new ownership – TV Commercial Retargeting. The new ad product is backed by a partnership with Rentrak, which aggregates set-top box data across 25 million households, tapping into data […]
The merger of comScore and Rentrak, announced Tuesday, creates a powerful new player providing unified digital and offline measurement. The deal poses a real challenge to Nielsen, which nevertheless is not about to be overthrown as the reining champ of marketing and media measurement. Pending regulatory approval, comScore will begin to combine its digital audience measurement […]
There’s apparently power in numbers in the fight against ratings fixture Nielsen. Measurement companies comScore and Rentrak have reached a definitive agreement to merge, the two companies announced Tuesday. (press release) In the stock-for-stock merger, Rentrak is to merge into a wholly owned subsidiary of comScore. ComScore CEO Serge Matta will take the reins as CEO […]
Marketers struggle to link digital conversion data with television tune-in campaigns, because there’s no single system that connects disparate data points – like linking marketers’ CRM systems to Nielsen ratings. “The promise of digital is accountability and we need a solid, closed-loop system to make the connection,” according to Charlie Fiordalis, chief digital officer for […]
Rentrak defended itself late last week against rival measurement firm Nielsen, whose global president Steve Hasker claimed Rentrak “never lets the facts get in the way of a good press release.” Hasker, in a Friday media briefing regarding errors Nielsen had discovered in its national networks ratings going back to March 2, opened fire on […]
WPP Group planted a stake Thursday in Rentrak by acquiring $98 million of the media measurement company’s common stock (12.4% of total shares). In return, Rentrak gets Kantar Media’s TV measurement business in the US. WPP also made a $56 million cash investment in the company, which, barring regulatory approval, would give the holding company […]
Rentrak sees surging interest in addressable TV advertising, according to Bill Livek, CEO of the audience measurement and data services firm. “We believe this will be a massive advertising category,” Livek remarked during the company’s quarterly earnings call Thursday. “The folks who are doing addressable campaigns, every time a brand runs a campaign they can […]
Audience measurement mainstay Rentrak paid homage to the staying power of programmatic when, on its Q4 earnings call just weeks ago, Vice Chairman and CEO Bill Livek credited automated advertising as a growing trend the company is now “catering to.” Rentrak has been on a tear of late, racking up headlines as a (perhaps less-publicized, […]
