SANTA MONICA, Calif. — In a year in which MVPDs have kicked the tyres of new systems for measuring TV viewership, one concern to have emerged is under-representation of certain communities in the data.

In 2022, Beet.TV heard a number of executives call attention to the problem and its pitfalls.

In this video interview with Beet.TV, a representative of TV’s traditional measurement system says a quest to count everyone is baked-in to her company’s big new cross-screen measurement initiative.

Capturing progress

Angela Girardin, SVP, Audience Intelligence, Nielsen, says the company is on a mission “to enable a more equitable world where everybody is counted and included”.

Company initiatives are geared toward “capturing and counting everyone in this country across ethnicity, race, income, and geography”, Girardin says.

Nielsen itself has faced challenged over the last year, after its accreditation for national TV measurement was suspended by the Media Rating Council (MRC) for under-counting audiences early during the pandemic.

But the MRC has said Nielsen “has made significant progress on most of the issues” with possible reinstatement coming soon, and Nielsen has also plowed ahead with its next-generation media measurement system, accounting for more than just traditional TV.

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Panel-plus

In development, Nielsen ONE is Nielsen’s big, future-facing cross-media measurement system, which is under development.

It would bring deduplicated viewing measurement, digital viewing data, individual ad measurement and a merger of Nielsen’s units that measure linear and streaming TV.

The company acknowledges that traditional TV measurement methodologies are not enough – but it continues to believe the combination of panels plus big data are the key.

“Traditional reliance on only demographic data has not been sufficient for a truly precise and optimised media strategy that our clients have asked for…,” Girardin says.

“By using first-party data alone, there’s a gap. But, using quality third-party data in conjunction with their first-party data, they’re really able to understand an entire view of their audience and their consumer that gives their agencies the ability to create a far more cohesive and comprehensive media strategy.”

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You are watching coverage of Beet Retreat Santa Monica 2022, presented by Ampersand, MiQ, Nielsen, PubMatic, T-Mobile Advertising Solutions and The Trade Desk. For more videos from the Beet Retreat, please visit this page