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‘Currency’ for Upfront Still Uncertain

As the topic of what ratings make the most sense to use as currency for television buys, different agencies are expected to push for different metrics in the upcoming upfront.

While Nielsen’s commercial minutes won’t be ready for release until too late for the upfront, some agencies are planning to do deals in May based on their own commercial-minutes data, writes MediaPost. MindShare and Mediaedge, for example, are pushing for deals based on those ratings.

Other media agencies - Starcom and MediaVest are two - plan to focus on minute-by-minute ratings, though those are more difficult for networks to process.

Commercial ratings are an average of all commercial minutes during an entire show, whereas minute-by-minute ratings are the exact ratings of each ad minute.

Horizon Media‘s executive vp and director of national broadcast says he’d like to use live program audience data for the upfront, like last year.

Commercial ratings are 3 to 10 percent under their respective program ratings, which could potentially mean that a media agency could save money based on those ratings. But Cohen doesn’t believe there will be savings of 3 to 10 percent, even if commercial ratings are used. “The networks need the money. Nobody will gain an advantage on cost by using commercial ratings,” he says.

Another likely disagreement this year will be the DVR issue. Networks may still push for live-plus-same-day or one of the other metrics Nielsen offers. Depending on how many days of DVR playback are added back in, the data could bring the reduced commercial ratings right back up to current program ratings. “So then there is no gain or loss,” a network advertising executive is quoted as saying.