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Next month, TNS Media Research, a major TV ratings provider outside the U.S., will become the first significant player to challenge Nielsen Media Research domestically since the 1980s, when TNS commercializes its ratings service that’s based on anonymous viewing data collected from Charter Communications’ 55,000 Los Angeles-based subscribers, writes MediaPost.
Although TNS will continue respecting their privacy agreements with subscribers, George Shababb, COO of TNS Media Research, said that with cases in which consumers opt-in to TV ratings panels, TNS will offer set-top level data within households and may include demographic and psychographic data.
“It’s still a market-by-market thing,” said Shababb, of the company’s American rollout strategy. Late last year, TNS had a deal with Time Warner’s Oceanic cable system in Honolulu, Hawaii, to compile ratings, which won’t be available to advertisers, agencies or others to and use in their planning and buying.
Also, Shababb discussed the rollout as part of a more ambitious strategy to begin measuring other ways of viewing TV, including new digital platforms like video-on-demand and the internet. TNS’ other planned advances include a personal metering device, called the UltraTag, which can tell where viewers are within a house when they watch TV.
TNS’ move comes as a group of private equity firms is acquiring Nielsen’s parent VNU, in a deal expected to break-up VNU and sell off its assets - in which case, TNS would be a likely buyer for Nielsen’s U.S. operations.
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