Nielsen's recent announcement that they will extend C3 and C7 measurement for linear TV comes as no surprise, not because exact time isn't valuable or more accurate, but because bringing to life a sea, or perhaps more appropriately, C3/C7, change in how television is measured and transacted, has a host of business, logistical and technology considerations that need to be addressed.
These include, but aren't limited to, the inclusion of pod position in planning, negotiation, and measurement; consistent use of creative code/ad ID, and providing second-level precision on invoices. Multiply that across the number of advertisers, agencies, networks, measurement providers, and partners that are involved in making the media transaction go from plan and purchase to payment and performance, and you can appreciate that this is not the flip of a switch, or in this case, change of the channel.
With the billions of dollars that continue to be at play with linear TV, this is the time to facilitate change by enabling it. Nielsen’s decision to continue supporting C3 and C7 enables all parties to continue to transact in a way everyone knows and, for better or worse accepts, as we evolve the space. This evolution only happens with collaboration across the buy-side, sell-side, and respective technology and business partners.
While absolute uniformity is not required—each partner must be able to incorporate all the value they bring to the party—we need consensus on the transaction, associated workflow, data points, and KPIs to make exact spot go at scale. This has been an invaluable approach for us—collaborating with a swath of partners as we’ve supported new providers and processes with each broadcast year.
And while linear may lag, or said more appropriately, focus on more pressing matters—in the here and now, transacting data-driven linear and on demos across multiple providers at scale is paramount—with the rapid growth of CTV and cross-channel investment, where only exact measurement for all channels will do, this very much seems to be a matter of when, not if.
This does not mean we sit back and (binge) watch how this all plays out. Evolving measurement means evolving the transaction, commercial terms, and the people, process, technology, and data that support the end-to-end workflow. We need the good work across partners to continue if we are going to transform measurement.
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