Measurement Competitors Try to Snatch the...

Loosening Nielsen’s tight grip

Despite Nielsen’s stumbles in recent years, it’s hard for competitors to get more than a toehold.

Even as some of those competitors celebrate the JIC accreditation, Nielsen’s panel + big data currency has MRC accreditation, which provides a more intensive measurement audit than the JIC. 

Also, the JIC accreditation isn’t going to impact the current upfront season, according to two ad buyers. It’s “too late at this point” in the upfront season to start using a new currency as a whole, one of those ad buyers said, especially with publishers already closing deals.

Still, the buyer noted that they’ve been encouraging clients to lean into alternative currencies for advanced audiences and data-driven linear.

For many measurement upstarts, the best opportunity to unseat Nielsen was in 2021, when it lost MRC accreditation for lowballing both local and national audiences during the COVID-19 pandemic. But Nielsen regained national accreditation in April 2023.

Publicly, Nielsen claims it welcomes competition: “It makes us, and the industry, better,” a spokesperson said.

But it has also hammered its rivals with a steady drumbeat of lawsuits, filing ten patent infringement complaints over the last three years against competitors like TVision, HyphaMetrics, ACRCloud, and VideoAmp.

When VideoAmp got one lawsuit dismissed earlier this year, Nielsen swooped in with a new complaint, right before the company’s second Vampfront event in April, where it showcased new products to clients.

Nielsen’s vast resources give it the ability to file its never-ending lawsuits to weaken its competition, Liguori said. Even dismissals have a cost.

“It’s all part of their strategy to drain us of our financial resources,” he told ADWEEK. “When you’re a monolith, you can play that game.”

Liguori added that Nielsen’s strong public relations team also gives the company the upper hand: “It’s like a Lamborghini next to a horse and buggy,” he said.

A horse’s chance against a Lambo

Since Liguori took over the company in 2024 amid the exit of former CEO Ross McCray and layoffs affecting 20% of VideoAmp’s workforce, the company has been vocal in messaging against Nielsen, going to market with $600 million in investment and an offering comprising set-top-box and smart TV data from 40 million households and 65 million devices. It has also fortified itself with key partnerships with publishers such as Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, and Paramount.