Zenith & Nielsen unite internet, mobile video and out-of-home viewing data

Related to the previous post about IMMI, my attention was piqued today by news that Zenith and Nielsen are joining together to offer an end-to-end service that will deliver advertising performance insight across ‘three screens’.

(Three screens = television, internet and mobile.)

I’ve always thought that the awful, awful truth must really hurt with the likes of mobile and internet video measurement. More so with video.

I wonder just how the stats look. No doubt, people are watching television and video on their mobile handsets. No doubt. Just… it’s hardly in the millions.

I wonder, for example, how the pinstriped nike-wearing media executives in New York react to getting their report and wondering if 6.7 daily viewers is measured in millions or, if 6.7 is the actual figure.

I think it’s smart that these companies are uniting their services. Just, while mobile video is in its infancy, I doubt many of their clients are going to want to actually look at the equivalent of the Emperor’s New Clothes. The various ratings that we’re all used to — the ’18 million people watched EastEnders last night’ stats — are going to be vastly, vastly different when it comes to analysing mobile television viewing habits.

The services being adopted by Zenith Media are all part of Nielsen’s Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement (A2/M2) initiative, which was launched by Nielsen in response to the expansion of television programming to a variety of digital platforms. A2/M2 will allow Nielsen and its clients to “follow the video” to multiple media delivery systems, both inside and outside the home.

“We believe that it isn’t about linear television anymore,” said Peggy Green, Vice Chairman Zenith Media. “It is about following video content, content that can be viewed out of the home, on the net and on-mobile devices. We believe that Nielsen’s skill in media research will help us understand the depth and breadth of audiences across multiple platforms. This is just one step we are taking to master the new world of video content.”

More at http://www.nielsen.com/