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Advertisers to Nielsen: Two Streams of Data Is Plenty

In addition to announcing that they no longer believe Nielsen’s commercial ratings will be an adequate measurement of television ads, advertiser members of the Association of National Advertisers have also announced some thoughts on Nielsen’s program ratings streams, writes MediaPost.

Nielsen recently added three new streams of data to its television ratings, offering advertisers and their agencies six different data streams. The new data streams included viewing for one-day, two-days and three-days after a show has aired (in addition to live, live-plus-same-day and live-plus-seven-day). But on Monday, TV advertisers suggested that Nielsen may only need to offer two streams: live and live-plus-same-day.

In the same white paper that outlines advertisers’ desire for brand-specific commercial ratings, advertisers point out that live-only and live-plus-same-day are the critical ones to marketers. In a poll of its members on which single data stream best fits their company’s current needs, 31 percent said it was live-only ratings, while 59 percent cited live or live-plus-same day ratings.

The issue of what data stream would be used as currency in the upfront market was a hot one last year, and TV networks eventually agreed to adhere to advertiser wishes that they use live-only data. This year, however, networks made it clear that they plan to stick to their stated goal of using either live-plus-same-day or live-plus-two-day ratings. The white paper from the ANA may be a not-so-subtle nudge from advertisers, reminding networks that the battle for live-only ratings will be waged again.