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Terms such as “test and learn” and “alternative currency” get thrown around by the TV advertising industry — especially as this year’s upfronts are getting underway — but the truth is that most television advertising deals are still planned and transacted on Nielsen C3/C7 data.
That will be the case again this year, especially after Nielsen announced in late April that it was pushing back its big data release until September 2024. Nielsen’s national panel, composed of approximately 40,000 households, also was reaccredited by the Media Rating Council (MRC), returning Nielsen to the top of the currency food chain. While buyers and sellers are still pushing hard for a multi-currency world, Nielsen ratings remain TV’s preferred currency, at least for now.
“I expect that the industry will be transacting on Nielsen traditional legacy currency for much of this year’s upfront, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be deals done using iSpot, VideoAmp and the like,” says Helen Katz, EVP, head of research, Publicis Media. “It will be similar to last year,”
And while a lot of lip service was paid last year to the use of alternative currencies, much of that was pushed aside once both buyers and sellers started to do deals.
“The last upfront, we had intended on doing more guarantees on alternative currencies and there was a lot of talk pre-upfront about doing that,” says David Campanelli, EVP and chief investment officer, Horizon Media. “But when we got to the negotiating table, we were disappointed by how