Irwin Gotlieb, former chairman and CEO of GroupM, offered the opening keynote at the Advanced Advertising Summit. Interviewed by B+C senior content producer Jon Lafayette, Gotlieb stressed that the TV advertising world faces serious challenges. 

“Are these the best of times? Hell, no,” he said. 

With the streaming players joining linear networks in the advertising forum, Gotlieb spoke about the immense amount of content, driven by the streamers, facing consumers. “The stuff that is produced is not readily discoverable — the streamers don’t run the promo schedules that the linear [networks] do,” he said. “How do you get to the point of knowing what you want to watch?”

He also noted the challenge of different measurement systems on linear and non-linear. “If you don’t have proper measurement you don’t have the basis for doing transactions,” he said. 

Gotlieb assessed the state of the streamers, including Paramount Plus, Max and Hulu, but suggested taking Netflix and Prime Video out of the equation. “How many of them are making serious money?” he asked, noting how they are more likely to report finally stopping “hemorrhaging capital.”

Gotlieb mentioned GroupM gearing up for addressable ads back around 2008 to illustrate the in-fighting that’s long been part of the industry. “We literally faced resistance everywhere,” he said, amidst a prevailing sense of, “if it ain’t broken, don’t fix it.”

“Here we are in 2024,” Gotlieb added, “ill-prepared.”

The Advanced Advertising Summit is part of NYC TV Week, hosted by Broadcasting+Cable, Multichannel News and Next TV. Advanced Ads happens September 9, Next TV Summit takes place September 10, Hispanic TV Summit is September 11 and 40 Under 40 happens September 12. The first three events take place at etc.venues in midtown Manhattan, and 40 Under 40 is at 230 5th. 

Gotlieb was not entirely pessimistic about the industry. “Television is the most efficient and effective marketing tool that has ever been developed,” he said. Streaming, for its part, “should be the overall answer to the long-term health of the business but for the fact that the industry isn’t prepared for it.”

Gotlieb said the TV players have to focus on raising the tide so all entrants gain, more than stealing a viewer or two from the competition. “If the ecosystem isn’t healthy, nobody in the ecosystem will do particularly well,” he said. 

The technology is out there to fix the issues, he said, but the fix is complicated. 

“It’s not the technology that’s missing,” Gotlieb said. “It’s the industry cooperation.”

Measurement company Comscore promoted its CFO, Jon Carpenter to CEO, succeeding Bill Livek, who announced plans to retire earlier this year.

At the same time, former GroupM chairman Irwin Gotlieb said he was leaving Comscore’s board. GroupM was an investor in Comscore, a competitor to Nielsen.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Comscore said Gotlieb’s resignation was “not as a result of any disagreement with the company known to an executive officer of the company on any matter relating to the company’s operations, practices or policies.”

Comscore also named Nana Banerjee nonexecutive chairman. Banerjee had been on the board since March 2021. Banerjee succeeds Brent Rosenthal, chairman since 2018, who continues as lead director. Mary Margaret Curry was promoted to CFO and treasurer. She had been chief accounting officer.

The changes come at a time when the media industry is looking for alternatives to Nielsen and measurement companies are racing to create better ways to measure an increasingly complex video ecosystem.

Comscore is one of the companies whose data is being tested as possible currency for buying and selling advertising by companies including Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. Horizon Media is also testing Comscore data to see if it can be used as currency for local TV ad buys. 

After a three-year period in which it had to dig its way out from a re-audit resulting from issues found in its financial reports that led to fraud charges, management turnover, falling revenue and losses, Comscore recapitalized early last year, drawing investments from Charter Communications, Qurate and Cerberus Funds that wiped out its debt.

Before becoming Comscore’s CFO in November 2021, Carpenter had been with NBCUniversal, Nielsen and Publishers Clearing House. He worked for Sears Holdings and started his career at General Electric.

“Jon’s strong operational focus, strategic acumen, and experience driving both growth and profitability are exactly what we need for Comscore’s next chapter,“ Banerjee said. ”In addition to his background in finance, as well as in media and measurement sectors, Jon brings a customer-centric ethos. I am excited for and confident in Comscore’s future under Jon’s leadership. Along with the rest of the board, I am committed to working with Jon and the rest of the management team to help accelerate Comscore’s growth trajectory and achieve its full potential.” ■

Three Comscore directors including Madison Avenue legend Irwin Gotlieb increased their stake in the measurement company, according to filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Gotlieb, who resigned as chairman of giant media buyer GroupM in 2018, bought 100,000 shares at $3.19 a share on Aug. 11, bringing his holdings to $388,093 shares.

Itzhak Fisher, founder of Pereg Ventures, a venture capital fund, bought 100 shares at between $3.18 and $3.22 a share. He now owns $126,969 Comscore shares.

Brent Rosenthal, chairman of the Comscore board, bought 15,000 shares at $3.25 a share and now owns 179,959 shares.

The investments by Comscore’s directors follow the purchase of 200,000 shares by CEO Bill Livek in March.  Livek paid $731,962 for the Comscore stock, which brought his stake to 994,162 shares.

The purchase might indicate that the executives and directors have confidence in the company, which earlier this year made a $204 million deal that largely wiped out its debt.

Earlier this week, Comscore reported that it lost $18.5 million in the quarter, compared to a $10.4 million loss in the second quarter of 2020. Revenue fell to $87.7 million from $88.6 million a year ago.