Comscore Plans 2021 Launch of Nationwide Impression-Based Ad System

Comscore plans to deploy a measured national advertising system for buyers and sellers of addressable ads in 2021, said CEO Bill Livek on a Monday investor call. The MVPD connected TV-centric approach, which enables measurement for more than 50 million households, will allow advertisers to use a common impression-level metric for addressable inventory that reconciles with non-addressable minutes and improves accountability across the ecosystem, said the executive. The measurement provides impressions for national programmer minutes across the largest MVPDs and connected TVs. Livek cited “dramatic changes” to media consumption behaviors in 2020 in increased streaming, gaming, e-commerce spending and mobile shopping: “As media content, particularly video, becomes increasingly cross-platform in nature, media buying and selling is shifting away from traditional age and gender demographics in gross rating points to audiences and impression-based measurement,” he said. The changes require measurement consistency across linear, digital and over-the-top video, he said, saying Comscore has been using impressions to measure audiences for many years. "Impressions, just not an average rating, will be used to evaluate success by planners and buyers, regardless of where the content and new advertising are viewed by consumers." Q3 revenue was $88 million vs. $94.3 million in the year-ago quarter on "challenging" market conditions, said the company.