Warner Bros. Discovery to offer Nielsen currency alternative

Warner Bros. Discovery struck a deal with VideoAmp to use the measurement provider as a currency in deals with advertisers across linear TV, streaming video, digital and social media.

While Warner Bros. Discovery previously conducted measurement tests with VideoAmp, Comscore and Omnicom Media Group clients, this deal puts VideoAmp alongside Nielsen as an option for writing ad deals. Warner Bros. Discovery is the last of the five major TV media players to offer a Nielsen-alternative measurement currency, with the other networks offering some combination of iSpot.tv, Comscore or Samba TV, in addition to VideoAmp. 

This comes as Nielsen continues to face increased scrutiny, allowing competitors to make inroads. In 2022, Nielsen was taken private and failed to regain Media Rating Council accreditation. 

Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav has been an outspoken critic of Nielsen measurement. 

“Traditional media measurement has not kept pace with how consumers are engaging with streaming and linear content,” said Andrea Zapata, executive VP and head of ad sales research, measurement and insights for Warner Bros. Discovery, in a statement. “We are gaining momentum as we act on our goals to offer best-in-class measurement capabilities and provide greater visibility into the return on ad spend.”

The deal with VideoAmp follows an assessment of measurement and currency solutions that identified a need for greater standardization, identity resolution and transaction capability as the industry moves toward “scaled adoption of multiple currencies by the 2023 upfront,” according to the media company’s statement. 

Omnicom Media Group, which has participated in tests using VideoAmp data with Warner Bros. Discovery inventory, provided a statement of support that stopped short of a commitment to use the new currency in deals. “The new data relationship between Warner Bros. Discovery and VideoAmp is a step forward in better third-party measurement for the industry,” said OMG North America CEO Ralph Pardo. “For Omnicom Media Group, it has the added benefit of aligning with our existing Omni Cross-Screen Insights capability and will help us close the loop for end-to-end planning through activation and measurement.”

The deal with Warner Bros. Discovery is one more indicator the industry moved much faster toward alternative currencies in 2022 than expected, said VideoAmp founder and CEO Ross McCray in an interview.

“If you’d asked me a year ago, I would not have thought we’d have gotten this much momentum and traction in a year,” McCray said. “Everyone thought there should be alternatives in maybe two or three years. We’re looking now at this upfront as the next milestone. We've already been doing these pilots now for about the past year. Every single holding company has been engaged. We have over 100 advertisers testing.”

He estimates that 90% of the video ecosystem in the U.S. will have alternative currencies available this year.

“That’s going to be really good for advertisers and the [media] industry,” McCray said. “Revenue is increasing for advertisers and yield is increasing for media sellers,” he said, because better data leads to better, more measurable results for advertisers that in turn flows into more spending.

Beyond a variety of currencies, more money is moving into connected TV and exchange traded deals as opposed to upfronts, McCray acknowledged, but he said VideoAmp is geared to work with both, and to deliver next-day data that’s increasingly important. Next-day reporting beats months-long look backs and piling up of deficiency units of gross ratings points, he said, because it lets ad budgets be spent during the quarters when advertisers have them allocated, not pile up make goods for the year-end.