Comscore’s new CEO, Jonathan Carpenter, will receive an annual salary of $600,000, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Carpenter was named this week to succeed Bill Livek who in February announced plans to retire as CEO. Carpenter is eligible to get short-term incentives equal to 100% of his salary on a prorated basis this year. He was also granted 400,000 restricted stock units

Livek’s salary for 2021 was $650,000, up from $528,125 in 2020. He also got stock awards worth $991,140 and other benefits adding up to total compensation of $2.15 million.

When Carpenter joined Comscore last year from Publishers Clearing House, he was given a base salary of $515,000 a year with a target short-term incentive paying equal to 100% of his base salary. He also received a one-time cash signing bonus of $300,000 and was granted $1.6 million in restricted stock units.

Comscore also promoted Mary Margaret Curry from chief accounting officer to CFO. Her new base salary is $375,000 and she is eligible for short-term incentives equal to 75% of her base salary She also received 110,000 restricted stock units. ■

Bill Livek, who announced plans to retire as CEO of Comscore at the end of 2022, bought 600,000 shares of Comscore stock for $1.15 million, according to a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Livek purchased the shares on May 31 and June 1 for prices between $1.90 and $1.93 a share. He now owns 2.4 million shares of Comscore.

Comscore’s shares were up 12% to $2.17 a share in mid-day trading Thursday, making Livek’s stake worth $5.2 million.

Livek bought $1 million worth of Comscore stock in March, paying between $2.54 and $2.67 per share. The shares traded as high as $5 a share last June.

Livek is making the purchase as a demonstration of his belief that Comscore is going to come out ahead in the measurement and currency battle, based on recent wins and what lies ahead for the company, according to a spokesperson.

Livek joined Comscore when Rentrak was acquired by Comscore in 2016. 

He became CEO in 2019. ■

Comscore CEO Bill Livek, who recently announced plans to step down from the post, bought more than $1 million worth of stock in the measurement company over the last three trading days.

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Livek bought 400,000 shares of Comscore stock between March 3 and March 7. He paid prices ranging from $2.54 a share and $2.67 cents a share.

When he was done with his shopping spree, Livek’s stake in Comscore common stock totaled 1,799,379 shares.

Also: Comscore Reports $2.9 Million Q4 Net Income, Reversing Losses

Comscore stock closed at $2.55 a share on Monday. 

Livek will become executive vice chairman of Comscore when a successor as CEO is identified.

Livek joined Comscore when Rentrak was acquired by Comscore in 2016. ■

Comscore said CEO Bill Livek has announced his intention to retire as CEO.

Like plans to serve as non-executive vice chairman of Comscore’s board after a successor as CEO is identified. 

Livek joined Comscore when Rentrak was acquired by Comscore in 2016. 

He became CEO in 2019.

“It has been an honor to serve Comscore’s shareholders, customers and employees, and I am so proud of what we have accomplished together as a team to make Comscore synonymous with census measurement,” Livek said. “I am confident about Comscore's future and honored to continue to be part of it.”

Also: David Kenny Says Some Parts of Nielsen One Are Being Accelerated

Comscore‘s board will consider external and internal candidates to succeed Livek as CEO. Spencer Stuart is assisting with the search.

“On behalf of the Comscore board, employees and industry, we want to thank Bill for his leadership and successful turnaround of Comscore,” said Brent Rosenthal, chairman of the board for Comscore. “Bill ensured that Comscore is in a stronger position than it‘s ever been and prepared to serve as the future of media measurement.” ■

As the television business continues to move closer to a streaming model, essentially turning the advertising measurement business on its ear, a panel of top industry executives said Thursday that the future will depend on how ratings companies, buyers and sellers can effectively analyze and interpret the reams of data available, and in some cases, pair that with panel data to paint a more accurate picture of who is watching what.

Nielsen has come under fire lately for its reliance on panel data, which it found difficult to validate during the pandemic. In early September, the Media Rating Council suspended Nielsen’s accreditation for local ratings. The MRC is seen as the seal of approval for measurement companies signaling their ratings have been determined using the proper methodology.

At a panel titled “The Future of Measurement” at Thursday’s virtual TVB Forward conference and moderated by TVB executive VP and chief research officer Hadassa Gerber, Nielsen chief operating officer Karthik Rao said while panel data has come under fire during the pandemic, it is still an important part of the process. 

“They’re not enough, we’ve acknowledged that all the way back to 2018, when we brought in other data sets to help complement what we provide from a panel perspective,” Rao said. “We continue to believe that panels are foundational. They’re the only thing that can provide access to what  people actually do in their households.” 

Rao continued that driving home that importance to clients and the rest of the industry is one of his top two priorities for the year — along with the addition of broadband-only homes and helping clients transact business based on ad impressions.

“Ultimately, this has to lead into the ability to measure the implicated frequency across media,” Rao said. 

Comscore executive vice chairman and CEO Bill Livek said his biggest priority is to ensure that his company has the most correct information to measure viewership. 

“We are big believers that the way you get the most correct information available are from big data sets that are further augmented with other data sets, so you can look at who is watching what specific program by second and look at the characteristics that go beyond age and gender,” Livek said. “Also, it’s very important to make sure we are counting all the impressions that are available, with the similar standards that are on digital and on television. Lastly, it is to continue to invent, to invent products that measure consumers who are in-market right now for certain products and how it relates directly to their television viewing.” 

Horizon Media executive VP and managing partner, Local One, Nancy Larkin, said that ensuring the validity of data is crucial to ad buyers and agencies.

“A pay on delivery model from all broadcasters would be a tremendous push forward,”  Larkin said. “Most important is a measurement that is accredited, reliable, and has substantial representation in each local market, and that it includes bulk viewing regardless of where that may be.Too much time is spent on the buyers and agencies having to analyze data that is flawed, faulty, looking at different samples. You guys need to get it right.”

E.W. Scripps Co. VP of sales and local media Missy Evenson added while buyers and agencies move toward impressions measurement, it is crucial that all parties are on the same page.

“It’s important to get that third-party accreditation and a source that provides trust for us in the MRC,” Evenson said. “An agreed-upon currency around impressions for everybody is equally important and a push as to an agreed-upon definition of what an impression is across all platforms is important. Universe estimates that we can all agree on and that have been validated are going to be very important to us.” 

Livek agreed, adding that not all impressions are created equal. 

“Someone watching the nightly news on a local station vs. a kid jumping through a hoop on a video is a very different type of impression,” Livek said. “Those are the pieces of the puzzle also that we’re committed to show that television video is unique vs. other forms of video available.”

The Comscore CEO added that his company will begin the MRC accreditation process in mid-October. 

Reports have said that Nielsen will be looking for RPD (Return Path Data) and ACR (Automatic Content Recognition) methodology accreditation from the MRC for its national metered markets, and Rao said the company is in active discussions to extend that to local markets as well. 

“We are in active discussions,” Rao said. “There is no question why we won’t go beyond the metered markets as well. It’s a matter of sequence. We are committed, we’re executing and we’re in active conversations as we have been for decades.”

Looking ahead, Larkin said that automation and pay per performance are the two biggest areas that buyers and agencies need to focus on. 

“COVID slowed us down a little bit, but we’re hoping that 2022 will move us forward with a lot of automated practices,” Larkin said. "Pay per performance … it’s where everybody needs to go. It’s going to be the thing that sustains our business.” 

Counting audiences and gauging the effectiveness of advertising will be on the agenda at Future’s TV Data & Measurement Summit on Wednesday, June 9.

Keynote speakers for the summit include the Media Rating Council’s George Ivie and Comscore’s Bill Livek.

Ivie, who is CEO of the Media Rating Council, will participate in the opening keynote, where he will address the challenges the industry is facing and how the MRC is addressing them. MRC has been in the news lately for its role in umpiring the controversy over claims by programmers that Nielsen under-reported viewing during the pandemic. 

Comscore CEO Livek will close out the event, speaking about Comscore's audience-based measurement approach and the company’s plans to jump to the forefront of video measurement. Comscore, after a major refinancing, is looking to be more assertive in using big data to measure video advertising across platforms.

Also featured during the event is a one-on-one with Kelly Abcarian, who recently joined NBCUniveral as executive VP, measurement and impact, advertising and partnerships. She will talk about NBCU’s role in setting standards for measurement, generating data-driven insights and using technology to deliver more effective advertising.

The summit will additionally feature panels on the best ways to use first-party data and the need for panels in a sea of big data.

Panelists come from companies including The Walt Disney Co., Havas Media, TVision Insights and WarnerMedia.

The TV Data & Measurement Summit is part of Future’s Summer TV 2021, which takes place June 9-10 and includes the TV + Sports Summit.

Comscore CEO Bill Livek is putting his money where his mouth is, buying 200,00 Comscore shares on the open market after closing a deal that wipes out the measurement company’s debt. 

Separately, the company announced a new local TV ratings deal with Fort Myers Broadcasting Co. 

Livek paid $731,962 for the Comscore stock, bringing his stake to 994,162 shares, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

After several years of financial and management chaos, Livek is betting that getting Charter Communications, Qurate Retail and Cerberus to make a $204 million strategic investment will put Comscore on a new course that the company is calling “Comscore Reinvented.”

Comscore reported a $13.2 million fourth-quarter loss, with revenue falling to $90 million from $95.2 million a year ago.

Fort Myers Broadcasting Co. agreed to use Comscore’s local TV measurement at its southwest Florida stations including WINK-TV, Ft. Myers.

“Southwest Florida is the fastest growing area of the Sunshine State and Ft. Myers is the state’s fastest growing city. That’s why it’s more important than ever for us to have the most comprehensive, accurate, and reliable way to measure our audience,” said Fort Myers Broadcasting GM Joe Schwartzel. 

“Comscore’s groundbreaking methodology uses 24/7/365 viewing information from one of every two homes in the Ft. Myers market, and that massive footprint is especially key in a rapidly growing and changing market like ours. No other audience measurement company offers that kind of detail,” said Schwartzel. “Now Fort Myers Broadcasting will be able to provide our advertisers with the kind of detailed audience information that shows clients the true value of advertising on our stations.”

Financial terms were not disclosed.

“We have continued our investment in and support of local broadcasters and their clients, most recently with the addition of more than 10 million homes to our local television measurement footprint,” said Steve Walsh, executive VP at Comscore. “We are excited to be partnering with the Fort Myers Broadcasting Company. Their commitment to Comscore further emphasizes the industry’s acceptance and support of Comscore as primary currency.”

Bill Livek has been in the business of measuring consumer behavior for 40 years, beginning his career at a time when a typical TV station was home to three broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC), PBS and one to three independent stations. Today, of course, is the era of “Peak TV,” where over 500 scripted series this year are expected to compete for a piece of the audience through a growing multitude of outlets as streaming continues to make inroads.

Now, of course, is the era of COVID-19, and its aftermath, when the consumer particularly hungry for options has access to more programs – and outlets -- than ever before. While no one knows for sure what lies ahead, Livek predicts a landscape, and the way we measure it, to be vastly different from what we once knew.

Ahead of his opening keynote at the Audience Measurement Summit on Tuesday, Sept. 29, part of Future's virtual Fall TV 2020, We spoke to Bill Livek about how Comscore is preparing to tackle this unchartered time in the media world.

Fall TV 2020: Group M's Joe Barone on Ensuring Brand Safety

Q.: What are you looking forward to most out of this conversation? Where are you expecting the conversation to go, and what would you hope audiences will glean from it? 

Bill Livek: TV will never be the same, nor will its currency as a result of COVID-19. But things, of course, have been evolving for a long period of time, and I think we have taken long-term trends and compressed them into a rather short of time. We are going to see the death of traditional TV ratings and the birth of impressions as we see in digital. 

Comscore has built its business in the impression currency across digital and TV; who those impressions are; what products the people in the households behind those impressions purchase; the kind of cars are they dream about buying and where they are in that cycle, for example…things like that. We are seeing a whole revaluing of the TV ecosystem, not to mention a vastly different airline model, video communications like Zoom in place of in-person gatherings, and so many other business models that are changing. So, we will have to take an innovative approach about lies ahead.

Fall TV 2020: Tackling 'The Medium Formerly Called Television'

Q.: How is TV/video audience measurement changing in this evolving landscape? 

B.L.: What we have today, in this type of fractionalization, are samples that are only producing a response rate in the single digits. So, you are basically guessing what the 90 percent of people that you can’t measure are watching. Some people are trying to find the patchwork solutions, like measuring a number of different methods. We’ve approached this problem by measuring every minute in every impression that you can within the census. Every connected home that you have, via cable, satellite or Telco company, or a smart TV set to augment needs to be addressed. Every impression counts. 

Q.: What are the key takeaways from tackling coronavirus these last six months?

B.L.: With COVID, we’ve learned that people are watching and binge-watching a great deal of non-ad-supported TV; Netflix or Amazon or any of the streaming services. One of the great needs is to show an advertiser, and to show the media companies – TV stations and TV networks – that households who watch most of their viewing on non-ad-supported platforms might also watch ad-supported content. You need to have a system that addresses what the ad-supported programs are and how to reach them. That inventory becomes exponentially more valuable when you know the purchasing patterns of the people watching. 

This is certainly not a new concept after COVID, but it magnifies the importance of understanding the audience and how to best reach them with an ad impression. As people resume more outdoor activity, we will see less available minutes of the increased consumption.

I do think some of this change is permanent and believe that consumers will be watching their dollars more carefully. Every time we have an economic disruption, the consumers put their hands in their pockets on certain items and I think they are going to do that on TV as well. Spending an accelerated amount of money on all these different streaming services is not something everyone is going to do. I think we will see the value of the cable bundle, and I believe the ad platform will become more important.

Q.: What are the key initiatives at Comscore. Has it changed with COVID?

B.L.: In 2019, we reached a decision that our cost structure was out of whack where the world was going. So, we restructured to focus around a world that is cross-platform impression based before COVID hit. What we worry about is fully integrating the content information into all of our data sects, which is what he faced before COVID and at present now.

As TV will never be the same, its currency won’t be the same as well and we are going to pivot quickly to impressions on cross-platforms.

Q. Where do you see the future in terms of linear versus digital consumption?

B.L.: Content is king; it always has been and always will be. We are somehow confusing the discussion of linear or AVOD or SVOD, which is not the central issue. It is not about where you watch it; it’s about what is available. And that comes down to the content itself. COVID or no COVID, that will never change. 

For more about Fall TV 2020 -- with the virtual Advanced Advertising Summit, Hispanic Television Summit, Streaming TV Summit and Audience Measurement Summit coming Sept. 8 to Oct. 2 -- visit falltvevents.com. 

As the industry increasingly embraces streaming while demanding accountability, Comscore and LiveRamp last week announced they were joining forces to try to lap the field in terms of measurement.

The partnership will focus on three areas: outcome-based measurement, data activation and a data safe haven to assure companies are comfortable using data in a privacy-friendly way.

All of these are hot topics at a time when the traditional advertising business is being hammered by the COVID-19 pandemic and advanced advertising is seen as a way to insure marketers that when they decide to spend dollars, they’ll get a superior return and be able to measure it.

“I believe this deal is transformational,” said Bill Livek, who last year took over as CEO of Comscore, which spent three years distracted by announcing issues and management changes that ultimately led to the company paying a fine to fraud charges.

“The genius of our relationship with LiveRamp is that brands can now have the truth about what’s going on in the television and digital video environment and and put real money on it,” he said.

The partnership is a practical way of providing clients what they’re asking for. “Certain things you have to build if they were not invented,” Livek said about Comscore’s system for using big data to measure consumer viewing behavior both on TV and in digital and LiveRamp’s identity graphs and attribution software.

“LiveRamp has done a marvelous job. Having two giant in the industry working together shows that we’re going to leapfrog everyone else,” he said.

The partnership aims to employ Data + Math, which LiveRamp acquired in 2018 to provide MVPDs, network, local stations and others with outcome-based measurement,” said Chris Wilson, chief commercial officer at Comscore.

In terms of data activation, “There’s a lot of great things we can do around expanding our activation work together including connected TV, which is a new and emerging area,” Wilson said adding that at the same time “more of our customers are looking for privacy-friendly ways to bring information together either from the brands and advertisers or third-party data in conjunction media exposure in a cross-platform world. The Safe Haven approach allows them to do that in a way that makes them comfortable and really supercharges the amount of commerce that can be done."

LiveRamp sees the world moving towards advanced advertising, which requires the careful handling of data.

“It seems that the future is accelerating,” said Jay Prasad, chief strategy officer for LiveRamp TV.

“The trends are around more addressability in advertising, the strong tailwind around streaming and accountability in marketing. Budgets have shrunk, but the ones that exist, they want to see what works so that you can continue to make smart investments,” Prasad said. “By partnering with Comscore, we’re able to take currency-grade media data and combine that with LiveRamp’s scale in identity and data distribution . . . at a time when the industry is fragmented this partnership brings things together in a way that makes it easy for the buy side and the sell side to take advantage of those tailwinds.”

The two companies plan to approach clients together under a contact that spells out the undisclosed formula for dividing revenue.

The arrangement is not exclusive but the two companies plan to appear joined at the hip when they go to market.

“I would characterize it as a ‘preferred partnership’ in the sense that we’re going to be working very closely together, selling each other’s services into their appropriate marketplaces,” said Wilson. “It’s in both our interest to really make this succeed from a sales and product-development perspective.”

The two companies will be able to get some products quickly to the marketplace. Others will take a bit longer.

For example, a version of Data Plus Math enhanced by Comscore’s audience data should be available to be used for any upfront deals that involve guaranteeing options, Prasad said. “This is probably going to be a very big year in terms of business outcome guarantees and other types of transactions,” he said.

“We’re also contemplating the international reach of both companies,” Prasad added. “We’re already starting to look at how we enable pieces of this in different markets as there’s strong demand across the world for these types of solutions.”

The only thing more complicated than trying to count viewers as they consume content on multiple digital devices might be trying to keep track of financial developments at measurement company comScore. When comScore, best known for tracking online users, in January 2016 acquired Rentrak — which used set-top box data to measure video-on-demand playback — it appeared to be forming a competitor to Nielsen, which dominates the TV ratings business.

But two months later, comScore disclosed that accounting issues had turned up in its financial statements. It would then go through a painstaking re-audit; a number of top executives, including two CEOs — co-founder Gian Fulgoni and Serge Matta — would in time leave the company. Analysts said comScore appeared too distracted, new product development slowed and, at the end of last year, there was a round of layoffs.

Activist shareholder Starboard Value LP helped comScore refinance in January, providing the company with $150 million in new cash. And the re-audit is expected to end soon, with the company saying it will release restated financial results by the end of March.

With all of that behind it, will comScore be able to compete with Nielsen, to give networks, media buyers and advertisers the advanced metrics they need to measure the new ways viewers are consuming content?

Bill Livek, executive vice chairman and president at comScore, said he believes it will, saying pointedly that comScore is back.

And Laura Martin, analyst at Needham & Co., expects comScore to be able to compete once its financials are squared away.

“Brands really want a second choice,” she said. “Content [owners] really want a second choice. They do not want to be monopolistically dependent on Nielsen.” And they’re willing to spend to support comScore, because if they don’t, “Nielsen raises its price, so you wind up paying more anyway.”

Nielsen declined to comment on comScore. But for the past few years, it has been working on its Total Audience approach to measurement.

Jessica Hogue, senior vice president of product leadership at Nielsen, said the measurement giant’s framework has been designed to be flexible and to support the different business models its clients could employ.

At times, there has been resistance to both Nielsen’s approach and the results that came from it. But Hogue said Nielsen has been working closely with clients to meet their measurement needs.

“We’ve seen a tremendous amount of progress, not just in our ability to get the capability to market, but in the different ways clients have been able to take advantage of it,” she said.

Hogue pointed to the way ESPN has used components of Nielsen’s Total Audience system to measure its live audience. She also noted that Nielsen worked with Turner to leverage video-on-demand ratings that go beyond the confines of a seven-day window. A number of clients have also taken advantage of new out-of-home audience measurement.

Last year, Nielsen extended its Digital and TV Ratings, which measure linear TV viewed on a digital screen; the extension would bring in platforms such as YouTube Live and Hulu. This year, the market is focused on connected TV and over-the-top viewing. “It’s already part of our program in the total audience framework,” so marketers will be able to leverage that measurement and continue to grow that marketplace, Hogue said.

“We’ll add features that also allow our clients to make business decisions in new and different ways,” she said.

Nielsen and comScore come at the issues taking different approaches.

“I would say that historically, which is their starting point, comScore looks at the world much more granularly from the set-top box data — which they would call census-based — versus panel-based, which is where Nielsen comes from. That’s a big difference,” Martin said.

In an interview, Livek spoke with Multichannel News  about where his company is and where it’s headed. An edited transcript follows.

MCN:comScore has been in the news a lot for all the wrong reasons. At this point, do you guys have the financial resources and stability to really get in there and compete in this increasingly complex measurement space?
Bill Livek: comScore’s back.

MCN:Back from where?
BL: comScore’s back. We had what I believe is a financial hiccup of doing a re-audit. And we announced that by the end of March we will be issuing these audited financials.

While that was going on, we’ve been refocused on our cross-platform efforts. And that’s in digital and TV and, of course, the movie business. We’re in a phenomenal business at the right time.

The industry is consolidating. You have Disney acquiring [assets of 21st Century] Fox; you have AT&T acquiring Time Warner. Embodied in the DNA of those big deals are movie studios, TV networks and digital distribution that goes direct to the consumer.

And at comScore, we’re measuring how people are being entertained and informed across all the different platforms.

MCN: Doesn’t consolidation mean you have fewer, bigger clients and doesn’t that give them more leverage over you?
BL: I think it’s a great thing for comScore that you have more incentive for companies to have great measurement and figure out a way to attract the right consumers, whether it’s a piece of content being released on the big screen at the movie theater, or whether it’s being released on your television set and then very quickly going on your digital device or on your digital device at the same time that it’s going to your TV set.

The epicenter of all these big mergers are companies that have information about their consumer, but comScore plays in the center about understanding how the consumer is interacting on all these different platforms.

And that’s why we’ve got a great business. We’re positioned quite well and we’re excited about what we do every day here.

MCN: The company has gone through a couple of CEOs over the past couple years. Who will be running the company long-term?
BL: The board has hired a search company and it’s evaluating internal and external candidates.

MCN: What can comScore do better than anybody else in the measurement world?
BL: Embodied in comScore’s DNA, it’s really interesting: We have digital in our roots, TV measurement in our roots and a love for movie measurement in our roots. And because of that, and because, literally, all entertainment now is digital, we think that we have a leg up on anyone.

We’re in a great place measuring the consumer wherever they’re entertained and informed, in any and every platform.

MCN: How do you do that?
BL: We do it in a lot of ways. Some of the ways we do it are with our census tags, where owners of content embed the comScore tag into their content. We call that our census tag. We have our media metrics panel and we also are pulling back video-on-demand from literally every set-top box in the United States that is video-on-demand-enabled and we also, at the same time, are pulling back linear television.

So, the combination of census-like currency and massive and passive information creates a great environment to measure consumers.

MCN: You’ve always gotten a ton of data from set-top boxes. Are you also getting data from connected TV?
BL: We can’t comment on what we’re doing with connected TVs, but connected TVs are a piece of the ecosystem, an important piece of where the future is going.There’s a lot of viewing via streaming and over-the-top of all types and we’re getting a great deal of that.

MCN: What part does your Total Home Panel play?
BL: Our Total Home Panel is a look at the future. We’re getting a lot of learnings from the Total Home Panel. From a strategy standpoint long-term, we’re evaluating it. But we’ve learned a great deal about the connected home, about all the different devices that consumers are using.

MCN: Are you guys able to measure the streamers? Can you tell me how many people are watching a particular program on Netflix, for example?
BL: Our point of view is if it’s not ad-supported, it’s not on the top of our priority list. Now our Total Home Panel gives us an idea of understanding how an advertiser can reach a viewer who is principally a Netflix viewer, and how they can reach them on a lot of the other digital platforms that are available.

MCN: TV viewing is measured one way and online video another. What will comScore do to create an apples-to-apples comparison? Will media buyers be able to buy both with a single metric?
BL: First off, we don’t think that media buyers will be using a single metric in the future. We believe they’re going to be using a basket of currencies, primarily two.

It also depends on where the ad load is. If the ad load is principally on digital, we’ll be seeing digital impressions. If it’s on TV, it will be a television impression, quarter-hour average minute or exact commercial rating. And one of the benefits that we have with what we do is to be able to look at that viewer and how they’re using television across all those platforms.

But our goal is to super-serve the media owners and super-serve the advertisers who are trying to reach a highly targeted consumer. And the good news about all these big data sources is that we can go beyond an age and gender definition of the consumer. And you have advertisers who are on a relentless quest of understanding whether those commercials resulted in some motivation to want to buy a product or, in fact, buy a product.

And the definition of a consumer is complicated. That’s why at comScore we really invented the whole idea of having these advanced demographics, like the cars that we drive, our intent to purchase, products that we buy in grocery stores. And how we vote, whether we are a persuadable voter or a hardened individual for one or the other party.

MCN: You’re talking about the shift to audience buying. Are you guys enabling media owners trying to shift away from Nielsen age/sex demographics to audience targeting?
BL: We’re the leader in it. We’re proud to be a participant in OpenAP with the networks who are involved, because they see the big value in comScore’s advanced targets.

MCN: How’s the relationship with OpenAP?
BL: Our relationship is very deep and wide with the networks that are participating in it.

MCN: Are you guys involved in attribution, measuring how much media advertising contributes to product sales?
BL: The answer is yes. We have a lot of advertisers who are trying to figure out, did the ad schedule actually result in moving product? You have a mega-trend out there and I think the epicenter of it is around 3G Capital and Kraft Heinz. Their premise is that if the ads, for them to have value, they have to see that it motivated a consumer to go and buy the brand or in fact buy the brand.

So there is a growing trend of advertisers who want to do that type of work, knowing that the ad schedules did in fact work. And when you have big data sets like we have at comScore, it’s an important ingredient in terms of trying to figure that out.

MCN: People see you competing with Nielsen. Do you see spaces where Nielsen is vulnerable?
BL: When we wake up in the morning we don’t even think about the competitive landscape. We think about our customer and how their business is evolving. And if this were a hockey game, we would want to anticipate where the puck’s going, and that’s where we put our energies.

We think we’ve built a great business here. And we trust that our customers see that also.

MCN: We were surprised to see the announcement by Sinclair Broadcast Group that they were back in the local measurement business with Nielsen. Does that say anything about their confidence in comScore and its products?
BL: You would have to ask Sinclair on that. We have a great relationship with Sinclair. Call it a fantastic relationship. And we work with all of their television stations across all of their markets and it’s just a great relationship. We would never comment on their right to buy anyone else.

MCN: comScore offered free viewability measurement via validated Campaign Essentials (vCE). Did a lot of clients take that offer?
BL: We’re doing a lot of really interesting work in that space and we plan on having a customer day in the future here so we can share a lot of the specifics. But it’s certainly a growing trend that advertisers want to make sure that their ads are being seen in a safe environment, particularly in this day and age in 2018.

MCN: Any other recent product launches gaining traction?
BL: All of our products are gaining different degrees of traction, whether it’s in local, digital or network or cross-platform. This is an evolving business. We’re in a dynamic cross-platform world — literally, it’s a dynamic cross-platform world. And our products will continue to evolve as the consumer’s evolving.

Who would have thought the consumer would be viewing and being entertained on all these different platforms just a few years ago? It’s a great environment, a great time to be a measurement company.

MCN: What’s in the pipeline?
BL: Stay tuned for our cross-platform offerings. We’re in a private release and you’ll be hearing more about those in the future.

MCN: Are they new and different?
BL: We haven’t been talking a lot about what we’re doing in that space, but while we’ve been quiet we’ve been working on a variety of new offerings. And you’ll be hearing more about it in the near term. There will be: You can’t have a wine before it’s time. It’s the same with products.

MCN: Any cool new ways to count viewers on every platform?
BL: A big piece of this is making sure you’re pulling back all the right big databases. You’re not going to have them all, but you’re going to have enough of them that you can statistically correct for the ones that you don’t have.

So we live in a world that’s never been; the dream of being more exact has never been more of a reality. But it gets increasingly complex every month and the thing that our customers keep coming back to us, they know we have the experience in digital and TV and movie measurement and we’re a constantly evolving business in the space of how the consumer’s entertained across all these platforms.

The CEO of Rentrak found it strange that while Nielsen was explaining a mistake it made in calculating ratings, it took time out to criticize Rentrak.

“Obviously they had a conference call because they fell and broke their arm,” said Rentrak CEO Bill Livek, referring to his ratings competitor. “My mother taught me a long time ago that when someone falls and breaks a limb, don’t laugh.”

While declining to comment on Nielsen’s measurement error, Livek said: “I did think it was quite odd that they decided while they fell and broke their arm they’re calling their neighbor pejorative things.”

During a conference call that focused on a software problem that led to viewing of broadcast and syndicated shows being incorrectly attributed to ABC, Nielsen global president Steve Hasker, criticized Rentrak, which had been in the news for acquiring some of Kantar Media’s U.S. assets from WPP. In exchange, WPP took a stake in Rentrak and its GroupM media buying unit became a Rentrak client.

Hasker said Nielsen had to respond to inaccuracies in Rentrak’s recent announcements, and also criticized its methodology and capabilities.

Livek maintains that Rentrak’s data is census level in the movie business and for video on demand. As for linear and DVR TV, once households from Cox and DirecTV are incorporated, it will receive data from 60 million television sets.

Read more at B&C here.