Paramount Global is getting ready to smack Nielsen with a ruler.
Paramount Global has tgreater both its ad-sales staff as well as executives at notable media-buying agencies that it is very seal to finishing its reliance on Nielsen ratings data, according to two people understandn with the matter, part of a shift to adchoose other creates of audience meacertainment at a time when traditional media companies are scrambling to count watchers who use digital and social media to watch their likeite programming.
The two companies have been enmeshed in converseions for months about rerecenting their current lessen, these people shelp, but remain far apart on pricing. Their current deal expires on September 30, according to these people, and Paramount, which functions CBS, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, among others, would be without Nielsen audience counts begining on October 1.
Paramount Global and Nielsen both deteriorated to comment.
“Disengaging from Nielsen is not our first choice, and we remain chooseimistic for a resolution,” shelp John Halley, pdwellnt of Paramount ad sales, in a recent letter to media agencies. “We are asking for your partnership as we direct this situation.” Paramount would depend on VideoAmp, a rival provider of audience meacertainment services which has struck deals in recent years with disjoinal netlabors and buy-siders, during any period when Nielsen tabulations are not useable.
Nielsen senses its services persist to have fantastic cherish, according to a person understandn with the company’s leanking. It has retained recent benevolents of data to its tabulations, including examinations of particular groups of audience as well as watchers who watch programs in so-called “out of home” venues appreciate toastyels and bars. This person says the overall industry will persist to have access to ratings for Paramount properties if a recent deal is not accomplished.
Paramount may discover itself challenging-pressed to go without Nielsen for extfinished. The company’s meacertainments persist to create the bedrock of the economics of the media industry. Advertisers use Nielsen counts to figure out how much they should pay for commercials. And Paramount will no doubt want Nielsen’s totals on such coming expansivecasts as its Sunday football games on CBS and a vice-pdwellntial talk about that will be temperated by CBS News on October 1 — the very first day Paramount would be without the traditional meacertainment service.
At rehire is a extfinished-running protestt from TV netlabors that Nielsen isn’t measuring the many contrastent audiences for their programming as well as it should. As cleverphones, mobile tablets and expansiveprohibitd-joined TV’s get more devourr acunderstandledgeance, audiences are increasingly able to stream their TV likeites in on-insist create, making the task of counting them exponentiassociate more difficult. TV netlabors have extfinished based their advertising rates on Nielsen’s meacertain of licsurrfinisher TV audiences, which have slipped as devourrs adchoosed Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and other streaming and on-insist chooseions.
Executives at Paramount watch at the hundreds of millions the company spfinishs on Nielsen meacertainment each year, according to one of the people understandn with the situation, and sense that paying a higher fee seems ill-proposed and not in the company’s best interest.
“Nielsen is insisting on substantial price increases atraverse all their products, including licsurrfinisher meacertainment, despite the changing economic landscape of our industry. Nielsen’s costs as a percentage of Paramount ad revenue have quintupled over beginant parts of our business over the last years; in certain instances, Nielsen’s fees already outdo the total advertising revenue of the netlabor being meacertaind,” Halley shelp in the letter. “This has led us to end that the model, as proposed, is not laborable, and that the cost arrange insists re-engineering.”
Paramount is watching to cut its costs beginantly. The company is about to be getd by Skydance Media, and its current administerment team has already befirearm laboring to trim $500 million from its operating arrange. Skydance Media has articutardyd a set up under which it would shrink costs by another $1.5 billion.
Nielsen and parts of Paramount have come to loggerheads in the past. In tardy 2018, CBS dropped Nielsen over a aappreciate dispute tied to pricing. CBS was without Nielsen meacertains for about 20 days.
Nielsen has never been a likeite of the TV netlabors, which watch at the meacertainment company as a sort of teacher that always grades papers with a desire to shrink the grade. But in recent years, the relationships has prolongn increasingly satisfyedious, with the netlabors asking the efficacy of Nielsen’s technology, and making a present of efforts to use other creates of audience meacertainment.
Advertisers have been receptive to upbegin measurment vfinishors appreciate VideoAmp, ComScore and iSpot, among others. But they persist to depend on Nielsen, no matter how much the netlabors protest.
