In an update of the review of the “accounting issues” that arose earlier this year, comScore said its audit committee is still studying the information it has collected and needs more time before it can complete financial reports for last year and the first quarter of this year.

The issue has affected comScore’s stock and threatens its listing on Nasdaq. Analysts say the review involves the accounting for some non-cash transactions.

 “The Audit Committee continues to work vigorously to complete its review and to report its findings to the Board," comScore said In a filing with the SEC Monday. "To this end, the independent counsel and other advisers to the Audit Committee have completed a substantial amount of their factual inquiries to address the Audit Committee’s review. The Audit Committee and the Board, however, require further time to evaluate the information collected and to reach and evaluate final conclusions."

Read more at B&C. 

comScore, which completed its acquisition of Rentrak in January, swung to a profit in the fourth quarter.

Net income was $4.4 million, or 11 cents a share, in the quarter, compared to a $2.7 million loss a year ago.

Revenue rose 10% to $97.7 million. U.S. Revenue was up 11.5% to $71 million.

The combination with Rentrak should make comScore a more formidable competitor to Nielsen in the media audience measurement business. The company said it plans to move quickly rolling out new products that combine comScore’s web measurement products with Rentrak’s set-top box-based TV ratings.

Read more at B&C.

After leaking word on the plan earlier this month, TiVo Research shed more light on its plan to give away basic TV ratings data for free to anyone starting in the first quarter of 2016.

TiVo has set up a Web site for those interested in registering for the free data offer.

TiVo, which is wishing luck to Rentrak and comScore as they look to take on Nielsen as a combined entity, noted that its platform will provide aggregated, national ratings with basic demos from TiVo Research’s reach of more than 2.3 million households. TiVo said its free ratings dashboard will show program-level aggregated ratings coupled with basic age and sex demographics on an anonymous basis. It also plans to provide same day and live + 7 ratings on a weekly basis.

TiVo said it’s making the free offer as the TV industry remains in a “state of flux” as eyeballs shift to multiple platforms that are all measured differently that traditional TV.

Multiscreen measurement and new forms of viewership currency was a hot topic at last week’s Multichannel News/Broadcasting & Cable  NYC Television Week event.

The measurement challenges emanating from the popularity of OTT realm are “significant,” Jane Clarke, CEO and managing director for the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), said at a panel at last week’s Next TV Summit. “OTT is, in particular, the latest big disruptor to come along, and is obviously of major interest to some members as [both] a disruptor and an opportunity,” she said.

That echoed comments from Linda Yaccarino, chairman, ad sales and client partnerships at NBCU, who keynoted last Tuesday’s Advanced Advertising Summit, and said there’s a need to create a uniform currency.

“We’ve got to capture viewing on the screen in the living room, on the screen in your lap, or the screen in your phone,” Yaccarino said. “It’s a situation that must be fixed. It’s an acute situation , and we’re doing everything we can.”

TiVo’s free offer also comes amid a report that Comcast is looking to license set-top data to other programmers and measurement companies.

"We will be giving this basic data away because we don't believe anyone should have to pay for this level of insight," said Frank Foster, SVP and GM of TiVo Research, in a statement. “Ratings are not where the focus needs to be. The focus needs to be on how you connect advertisers with audiences they really want to reach, with data that can ensure that, and metrics that can verify it.”

Ratings, he added “are not the issue of the day. We want to focus on what matters much more and that's answering the real questions of how you target viewers more efficiently, at a time when all networks are facing ratings declines."

While the dust continues to settle over last week’s announcement of the proposed merger between comScore and Rentrak, one consensus sentiment has risen above the rest — competition is good.

And competition, especially as it relates to the challenging field of crossplatform audience measurement, is very good.

CIMM (the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement) is supportive of the proposed merger because the competition it will bring to the audience- measurement industry will fuel innovations and new approaches. That is what competition always helps spur.

For example, comScore has already launched a version 1.0 X-Media service, and now Nielsen is launching one of its own. Both will need improvements as users test them out, but competition will ensure that over time these improvements will take place.

BREEDING COMPLACENCY

Certainly, in an environment where patterns of content consumption are evolving faster than we as an industry can develop methods to measure them, the reality of relying upon one or even two main measurement providers is not healthy for anyone — not even the providers. This level of market dominance inevitably leads to complacency simply because the economic incentive for taking chances and innovating is not there. The risk is too great, and the reward too small.

That, to a great extent, is why CIMM was founded — to serve as the industry’s research-and-development arm, fueling innovation in cross-platform measurement technologies as a counterbalance to what was seen as the slow pace of innovation.

Competition is only part of the problem, though, and compensating for the lack of it was only one reason why CIMM came to be. The other is a more important “c” word — cooperation.

Just as the most effective drug therapy will be of no use unless a patient complies with its administration, so, too, the most innovative technologies and approaches will be of little impact unless we collectively as an industry work together to effectively implement them.

Because just as there is a degree of complacency in innovation that occurs in a market dominated by a handful of players, there is also a complacency that develops among customers. The pull to favor what one already knows, even if it is not perfect, can be strong. It is often easier to just not rock the boat.

And that can certainly hold back the industry’s overall desire and ability to innovate and embrace change.

COMPETITION AND CONSENSUS

Competition, too, as helpful as it is to innovation, can be endemic to cooperation. There is the risk of ending up with a highly fractured approach to crossplatform measurement with no consensus as to what an acceptable metric is.

That is not to suggest we should desire competition to result in yet just another single source dominated measurement environment, but simply that broad industry conversation and cooperation is needed to help contribute, guide and direct the shape that crossplatform measurement is to take.

Certainly, those who do not participate in the conversation — who fall susceptible to complacency — will have no opportunity to change things after the fact.

And while competition, and the innovative technology it brings, will fuel the drive to more effective crossplatform measurement, it will be the human element, realized through conversation and cooperation, that will make it a reality.

That is really why CIMM was founded, to serve as a nexus for buyers and sellers to discuss and work together, and we are pleased to continue to serve in that role in the exciting days ahead as both the combined comScore and Rentrak take shape and our other initiatives in crossplatform measurement come to fruition.

Jane Clarke is CEO and managing director of CIMM, the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement. For more information, visit www.cimm-us.org