Coalition Of 14 Companies Launches Nielsen Rival
CIMM's Founding Members Include News Corp., Time Warner Inc., NBC Universal, Discovery, Disney/ABC, CBS, AT&T
By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 9/10/2009 10:55:09 AM
A group of major cable and broadcasting programmers, advertisers and ad agencies -- calling themselves the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement -- has officially unveiled its bid to challenge Nielsen Media Research's stronghold in television ratings.
The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement, or CIMM, will "promote innovation in audience measurement for television and cross-platform media," including identifying new methodologies and approaches to audience measurement through a series of pilot studies with independent measurement companies, the companies said in a joint announcement Thursday.
The group's founding members and
current participating companies are: AT&T, CBS, Discovery Communications,
GroupM, Interpublic Group's Mediabrands, NBC Universal, News Corp., Omnicom
Media Group, P&G, Starcom MediaVest Group Worldwide, Time Warner, Unilever,
Viacom and The Walt Disney Co.
CIMM will focus on two key areas: the current and future potential of TV measurement through set-top-box data, and new methods for cross-platform media measurement.
The plans for the coalition were reported last month by The Financial Times. The purpose, one executive involved in CIMM said last month, is "to light a fire under the ass of Nielsen and create some innovation and competition."
Nielsen Media Research declined to comment on the CIMM announcement.
Earlier this week, Nielsen Media Research said in a letter to clients that viewers who watch shows online through "TV Everywhere" services from Comcast, Time Warner Cable and others could be counted toward overall TV ratings -- but that the full implementation of its system to track such Internet services will not be available until early 2011.
Executives of the participating CIMM companies each issued statements outlining their aims.
On the broadcast and cable side were: Jeff Bewkes, chairman and CEO of Time Warner Inc; George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports; Anne Sweeney, president of Disney/ABC Television Group; Chase Carey, president and chief operating officer of News Corp.; Philippe Dauman, president and CEO of Viacom; David Zaslav, president and CEO of Discovery; Jeff Zucker, president and CEO of NBCU; and Nancy Tellem, president of CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group.
Advertising agency executives represented were Laura Desmond, Global CEO, Starcom MediaVest Group; Nick Brien, President and CEO, Interpublic Group's Mediabrands; Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive, WPP, holding company for GroupM; and Page Thompson, CEO, North America, Omnicom Media Group.
Executives at large advertisers involved in CIMM's formation are Dina Howell, Procter & Gamble's vice president of global media and brand operations; Laura Klauberg, Unilever's senior vice president of global media; and Esther Lee, AT&T's senior vice president of brand marketing and advertising.
"As we continue to make our content available across additional and emerging platforms through initiatives like TV Everywhere, it becomes increasingly important to measure consumer interaction with our brands," Bewkes said. "Comprehensive and accurate measurement will have a direct effect on the continued growth of our industry."
Added Carey, "At News Corp we've been calling for more accurate television measurement for some time. We're happy to support this bold industry initiative -- which is the first step in a major movement by media companies and their advertising partners to explore available ways to better measure the various platforms that support video content."
NBCU's Zucker, for his part, said: "Twenty-first century media needs 21st century measurement techniques. Existing systems are incapable of accurately measuring the media habits of our audience across today's multiplicity of platforms. CIMM is an important step in helping to address this problem. As an industry, we can't afford not to do this, because if we can't measure our audience accurately, we can't sell it."
No related content found.
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
