After years of complaining about the inadequacies of Nielsen Media Research’s panel-based TV-ratings services, a group of major media companies, ad agencies and marketers is finally trying to do something about it.
But their goal isn’t to unseat Nielsen as the standard by which TV ad rates are set. Rather, the 14 companies behind the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement said they’re aiming to fund the development of technologies and methodologies for new forms of audience measurement — whether those come from Nielsen or someone else.
“We think it’s time to take our future into our own hands,” said NBC Universal president of research Alan Wurtzel, adding that it was a “misperception that CIMM was developed as an alternative to Nielsen.”
