The Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), representing television networks, asked Nielsen not to go forward with its plan to incorporate viewing data from Amazon when coming up with the audience estimates advertisers will use to determine how much they pay for commercials on Thursday Night Football on Amazon’s Prime Video.

Last year, Nielsen’s audience figures for Thursday Night Football were smaller than Amazon’s own estimates for how many people were watching the telecasts during Prime Video’s first season as the exclusive national outlet for the NFL package. They were also well short of the ratings generated when the games were broadcast on Fox.

The VAB said using Amazon-generated first-party data gives Prime Video an unfair advantage over the networks that carry NFL games.

“We see Nielsen’s articulated NFL plans for Amazon (intended to be activated by the Sept. 7th opening of the ‘23/‘24 NFL season) as Nielsen clearly forcing changes into a highly valued, highly visible, ultra-competitive multibillion-dollar sports content arena; changes that will greatly benefit one Nielsen client (Amazon) while negatively impacting multiple Nielsen clients (all remainder NFL programmers, distributors & ad sellers),“ the VAB said in the letter, addressed to Karthik Rao, CEO of Nielsen Audience Measurement.

The VAB said that Nielsen’s plan “has the effect of tipping the scales in Amazon’s favor versus its NFL programming/advertising competitors.”

The VAB also pointed out a number of statistical differences between Amazon’s data and Nielsen’s own data. It noted that co-viewing of TNF on Amazon was 28% higher than all other national sports programs, on average, and that TNF scored higher in homes with traditional TV set-top boxes than other NFL games. 

“While asked by many of our major members (including NFL programmers) to justify, explain, rationalize or prove any of the above, Nielsen has not given any level of meaningful detail that proves any of it is correct,” the VAB said.

The VAB said it is in favor of using first-party data as part of measuring audiences, but it must be done the right way.

“There are significant upsides to marketers in measurement, currency, precision audience-based buying, and data-driven full-funnel marketing/analysis that the proper infusion of first-party data from as many publishers as possible will create,“ the VAB said. “Those wins will come by having all first-party ad video sell-side players playing by the same rules, all accomplished in extremely well-lit and evenly lit end-to-end processes; that is the only way to proceed that assures both the marketer wins and the best level of fair competition across publishers. We are calling on Nielsen to not go forward with its plans to unfairly force first-party data from Amazon’s TNF property into the NFL third-party data sets.”

Gonzalo Del Fa, president of Group M Multicultural and chairman of the Culture Marketing Council (CMC), delivered the opening address at the 18th annual Hispanic Television Summit on Tuesday (Sept. 22), declaring that “total market is totally dead.”

His comment about the previously popular media strategy, in which messages targeted to diverse audience segments were an inherent part of marketing communications, provided energy to his challenge for change within the multicultural marketing and media industry. 

He said, “one size does not fit all. Multicultural consumers want to watch content created by their community and for their community.”

Del Fa also addressed how the impact of current events like COVID-19, and the increase of violence, racism and hate, have shifted how brands communicate with their consumers. He said the industry needs to “evolve from where we are, to where we need to be,” in reference to an “emerging sense of a need for diversity in the work force … that there is a call to not just think about it, but to actually do it, and do it now.” 

He added that companies that do not have a diverse work force cannot understand why diversity marketing is important. In his perspective, they are missing the opportunity to tap different voices and to bring a different perspective to their advertising message.

Regarding the effect of the COVID shutdown on media budgets, Del Fa said, “I was afraid what was going to happen was what usually happens, that multicultural media budgets get cut first.” But he was surprised. When COVID started, all budgets were cut, not just multicultural. He added “this is a good sign that we are all rethinking how to plan to spend.”

Del Fa emphasized that “if a company truly believes in inclusion, it should then be a corporate requirement to have a multicultural marketing plan and budget.”

The conversation of multicultural media continued with a session moderated by Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) CEO Sean Cunningham, who opened with a presentation of findings from the organization’s study of video ad campaigns targeted to Hispanics. The study effectively proved the points made by Del Fa.

Cunningham said, “we wanted to see if brands that use cultural messaging in their advertising see a positive reaction from the Hispanic market, and then does this reaction result in sales?”

The VAB study reviewed 3,300 video ads, from 50 major consumer brands, and came up with 20 case histories. 

One history that Cunningham shared featured the Toyota RAV4, which had a $22.6-million Hispanic ad spend over four years, featuring 13 different culturally targeted ad spots that generated a 42% increase in sales and over 100,000 units sold in the Hispanic market. He encouraged attendees to log in to the VAB website to review the full report.

During the panel discussion that followed, Glenda Villanueva-Marchetta, Multicultural Lead, from Altice’s A4 Advertising, shared that Hispanics currently comprise the single largest spending consumer group at $978 billion in 2020 and expected to grow to $2.3 trillion by 2024. She emphasized the opportunity presented by the market by saying “it’s just nuts if you are not spending in the Hispanic market.”

Another panelist, Steve Mandala, Univision’s president of Ad Sales and Marketing, commented that he sees a “new energy in the last four months reflected by the opportunity to directly reach top decision makers at leading brands.” 

Sandra Alfaro, executive VP and managing partner at 305 Worldwide, added, “from the agency perspective there’s a growing interest by advertisers to be culturally responsible and relevant. They are recognizing that youthful Hispanic consumers have Influence that goes beyond buying power, to innovation.”

Mandala concluded by saying “There’s a pattern here. Whenever brands have a realistic recognizable consistent commitment … they see outstanding results.”

Holding that there’s a “false narrative” around cord-cutting, the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) issued a report finding that cable TV subscriptions have remained steady, at around 83% of households, despite a surging number of OTT options.

The study, Cutting to the Chase, which refers to data from sources such as Nielsen, SNL Kagan, and TiVo, among others, found that streaming services tend to be used as a complement to, rather than a replacement, of cable TV subscriptions. Most homes (71%) of TV homes use streaming services as an add-on to pay TV, VAB said.

That position runs counter to recent forecasts and reports that cord-cutting is a troubling and accelerating trend. This week eMarketer predicted that 22.2 million U.S. adults will have cut the cord by year-end, up 33% from 2016, and ahead of a prior end-of-2017 estimate of 15.4 million.

RELATED: Traditional MVPDs Lose Record 941K Subs in Q2: Analyst

VAB said its data shows that a bump in broadband- and broadcast-only homes hasn’t come at the expense of “Cable+” homes, which declined by less than 1% last year. Additionally, broadband-only and broadcast-only homes still represent just 4% and 13% of TV households, respectively.

“The numbers don’t support the narrative of cord-cutting either accelerating or being evidence of some consumer movement to streaming apps as a preference to TV; in fact even the heaviest video streamers watch eight times as much TV as they do streaming video” Sean Cunningham, VAB’s president and CEO, said in a statement." 

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Comparing traditional TV with digital has long been tricky. While data about digital seems more direct and accurate, measurements like unique users and minutes viewed are like oranges compared to TV's audience of apples.

While measurement companies Nielsen and comScore compete to construct a cross-platform ratings regime that works, the Video Advertising Bureau, which represents broadcast and cable TV, has come up with a formula it says provides an accurate snapshot of the number of people using TV versus those using Facebook.

The VAB’s solution is to measure average audience per minute, which takes into account reach, frequency and time spent, the factors that are important to advertisers. The VAB multiplies unique audience by average minutes viewed per visitor to get total minutes viewed. Then it divides by total minutes in the time period to get an average audience.

Using this formula, the VAB said, TV’s audience in any minute averages 45.4 million people, topping 12.7 million for smartphones and 9 million for PCs.

Television accounts for 95% of video consumption among adults and 88% among those pesky, cord-cutting millennials. TV as a whole beats Facebook 7 to 1, Pandora 15 to 1 and YouTube 15 to 1 among adults, according to the VAB.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Broadcasters and cable networks will team to form a new organization focused on maximizing advertising potential through quality content on traditional TV outlets.

The newly named Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) -- formerly the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau -- will look to unite broadcast and cable networks as well as MPVDs in an effort to “raise the bar” on research, data and analytics as well as expand the market for advertising in “world class” video content, according to Sean Cunningham, who will serve as president and CEO of the VAB.

“At this point there’s a need to get everyone together because the stats are overwhelming for consumption, and the needs are significant in terms of better data and more insights,” Cunningham told Multichannel News. “We hope to have to get insights around consumer behavior and analytics about how to best quantify the selling power of this instrument.”

Joe Abruzzese, president of advertising sales at Discovery Networks and inaugural co-chair of the VAB, added that while the industry is changing rapidly, the one constant is the power of television to reach consumers with advertiser messaging. “By broadcasters, cable networks and distributors coming together in this unprecedented way, VAB members will share expertise and insights, put forward original research and push toward a common goal of elevating television’s leadership in driving product sales and brand affinity for clients,” Abruzzese said.

The VAB will include 110 networks and the 11 largest MVPDs that, Cunningham said, produce and sell the overwhelming majority of video content and command the vast majority share of viewer attention. He added the newly formed association will combine the biggest broadcast networks, cable networks and distributors to advance the power of video advertising.

“I think this move just reinforces the fact that the membership base is very eager to work with marketers and help them make decisions and make sure they have the right information to make those decisions,” said Joan Gillman, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Time Warner Cable Media and inaugural Co-Chair of the VAB. “It’s a really effective move on the part of the CAB/VAB.”

Cunningham also said the group has been holistically looking at all ad-supported TV since January in preparation for its transition.

“There is no equivalent to this either through a consumer connection or the ability to sell,” Cunningham said.

While the organization will focus on broadcast and cable networks and programming, Cunningham didn’t rule out possibly working with digital players, including ad-supported over-the-top services in the future.

“In this environment you have to be open to a lot of possibilities including any premium content … our doors and minds are open,” he said.