Nielsen replaces CEO amid measurement turbulence

Nielsen has named Karthik Rao, who headed Nielsen Audience Measurement, as CEO of the company, succeeding David Kenny, who will become executive chairman.

Rao has been CEO of Nielsen Audience Measurement, the company’s biggest and most strategically important unit, since earlier this year, following a restructuring in the wake of the company being taken private. Prior to that, he was chief operating officer under Kenny when Nielsen was a public company. Kenny had been CEO since 2018, and retained that role as Nielsen went private.

Rao's position as CEO of Nielsen Audience Measurement will not be filled. “There is no longer a CEO of Audience Measurement,” a spokeswoman said in an email.

The move comes in the wake of an announcement that Nielsen would lay off 9% of its global workforce. Nielsen also faces mounting competition and pushback from TV networks, and in some cases, buy-side executives, over plans to incorporate Amazon Prime first-party data into “Thursday Night Football” measurement and make its newer big-data product an alternative to trading on its panel-based data, which is accredited by the industry’s quality arbiter, the Media Rating Council.

“Nielsen has been my home for most of my career, and I could not be more excited for this new opportunity,” Rao said in a statement. “Providing our client partners, the ad industry, and content creators of all types, the most accurate information possible is our singular goal. …Together with our talented employees, I look forward to positioning Nielsen for the next century and beyond.”

Kenny said: “This is an exciting day for Nielsen and for me. I have been fortunate to lead this company through some extraordinary times in the past five years, working alongside Karthik for much of it. As I transition to my new role and my operating responsibilities come to an end, I hand over leadership to someone with extensive experience in knowing what Nielsen does best, backed by the skills and understanding to position the company for a vibrant future. He has my complete support and I wish him, and everyone at Nielsen, nothing but tremendous success.”

Kenny’s future had been the subject of industry speculation for some time. His public statements critical of some of Nielsen’s biggest clients had angered TV executives, albeit ones that were long-time Nielsen critics anyway.

According to several people familiar with the matter, leadership of Elliott Investment Management and Brookfield Business Partners, Nielsen’s private equity backers, have made overtures to various network executives directly to reach or extend long-term contracts, raising questions about Kenny’s role. Nielsen has declined to comment on those reports.

David Kerko, head of private equity at Elliott, said in a statement: “We have seen great progress already, and we want to thank David for all he has done to contribute to that success. Karthik is now the right leader for Nielsen, which is well-positioned to evolve with and support the media ecosystem as it undergoes a period of dramatic change. Karthik’s expansive industry experience, deep client relationships, and proven track record make him ideally suited to manage this evolution and make Nielsen’s value stronger than ever.”

Rao has been somewhat controversial in his own right, exchanging heated letters with Video Advertising Bureau CEO Sean Cunningham recently over the Amazon issue. But several industry executives privately have given Rao higher marks for relations with clients and his grasp of audience measurement than they give Kenny.

Late in 2021, there was an internal ethics probe into whether Rao improperly aided the career of a Nielsen attorney with whom he had an alleged affair, the New York Post reported, with Rao in a statement saying the probe showed he did nothing wrong and declining to comment further.