{"id":3295,"date":"2026-05-09T18:24:28","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T18:24:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=3295"},"modified":"2026-05-09T18:24:28","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T18:24:28","slug":"tv-ratings-revolt-upfront-measurement-sales-foot-traffic-1236742315","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=3295","title":{"rendered":"Big Media Hopes Upfront Raises New Measures"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\n\tTV has long been an industry based on eyeballs. Now media companies are winking more at feet.<\/p>\n

\n\tFox<\/a> Corp. is the backer of some of TV\u2019s most-watched programs including Sunday-afternoon NFL games and \u201cThe Masked Singer.\u201d\u00a0 Earlier this week, however, it released a report <\/a>touting not the number of people who see its shows, but rather the fact that ad campaigns from certain fast-food chains seen by viewers on its broadcast network drove foot traffic to restaurants by 81% over audiences who did not. The data comes from a Fox home brew of more than 20 different sources that gauge consumer activity and response, and there is some expectation on the part of big media companies that proof of what are being called \u201coutcomes\u201d \u2013 actions taken as the result of having been exposed to ads \u2014 may become a bigger part of ongoing discussions between Big TV and Madison Avenue.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn the future, we need to start really leaning in on how well we perform from an outcomes perspective, versus just measuring impressions,\u201d says Kym Frank, \u00a0senior vice president of ad sales research for Fox Corp., during a recent interview.<\/p>\n

\n\tWill TV back away from the TV ratings<\/a> upon which it has relied for decades? In conversations taking place across the industry, executives say they hope that the idea will succeed. Some talks will grow more earnest over the next few weeks, as TV networks and streamers try to sell billions in advertising during the sector\u2019s annual \u201cupfront\u201d market,<\/a> which kicks off Monday with the first of a series of glitzy presentations to advertising agencies and would-be sponsors.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI feel like that\u2019s the next wave,\u201d says Bobby Voltaggio, president of U.S. ad sales, platform monetization, at Warner Bros. Discovery, who adds; \u201cImpressions remain important, but maybe not as much as they were in the past.\u201d He envisions a new system shaping up within two to three years that puts new emphasis on connecting ads to business results. A survey of 300 industry executives by iSpot, one of the measurement companies hoping to make more of a business in tracking outcomes, found 53% of respondents cited them as the most critical measurement standard, while only 9% thought measurement of individual programs was.<\/p>\n

\n\tMuch of the prevailing sentiment has been spurred by years of growing frustration with current measurement of TV audiences.<\/a> For decades, billions of dollars in advertising have been transacted on Nielsen<\/a> ratings that tabulate how many people saw a TV program or commercial, and, also on how many people of a certain age or gender did as well.<\/p>\n

\n\tHollywood\u2019s recent streaming wars, however, have cast all kinds of doubts on the value of such totals. <\/a>More people watch their favorite dramas, comedies, movies and reality shows at times of their own choosing \u2014 only sports and some live events seem able to buck the trend \u2014 and new technology gives advertisers the ability to place commercials according to finer characteristics, like geographic location, income, or \u00a0likely interest in a product such as\u00a0 box of diapers or a new car. Suddenly, big audiences are harder to come by, and advertisers instead must work harder to persuade individual viewers during personal binge sessions.<\/p>\n

\n\tBesides, a new generation of advertisers at home with digital media are more interested in response rates, website visits and requests for more information. These are things that can be tracked more easily online, as opposed to the old-school TV set that once stood at the center of most families\u2019 living rooms. One advertiser might want to drive visits to a car showroom, while another might want to send out a brochure about travel to a new theme park or hotel. A third could seek to sell tickets to the opening weekend of a new movie.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI think the conversation is shifting from who saw an ad to what happens afterwards,\u201d says Alan Moss, \u00a0vice president of global sales for\u00a0Amazon Ads. \u201cIt\u2019s really about engagement. It\u2019s about results. And agencies are increasingly focused on how they connect those spots to real outcomes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTV companies have been working on this stuff for years<\/a>. In 2017, the former Discovery Communications joined with Fox News, the former A + E Networks, the former AMC Networks, the former CBS Corp., and Disney ABC Television (the corporate name changers show how quickly the industry has been scrambled by streaming and new technology) to pursue a trial of new technology that sought \u00a0to tie exposure to video ads to an actual customer action. The project was code-named \u201cThor,\u201d and TV executives hoped to gain credit for delivering customers to restaurant and car-dealer showrooms. Since that time, A&E, Paramount and others<\/a> have unveiled their own efforts <\/a>to connect views of ads to making the sponsor\u2019s cash register ring.<\/p>\n

\n\tSome work has been hard to miss. In 2024, Fox and Netflix agreed on a deal that examined how much social-media activity was generated<\/a> by a two-minute segment during one of the network\u2019s Sunday-afternoon football telecasts that featured director Zack Snyder and augmented-reality scenes from the streamer\u2019s movie \u201cRebel Moon.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tLike everything having to do with measuring media audiences, change won\u2019t happen at the click of a mouse. \u201cOutcomes are subjective,\u201d says one media buying executive. \u201cWhat an outcome is for one ad is different from another one.\u201d Some media companies might like to use them more because doing so might prop up prices that have begun to sag as traditional Nielsen ratings erode. \u201cDo outcomes come up more? Absolutely,\u201d this executive says., \u201cDo I think it will drive tons of incremental spending? I don\u2019t think so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTV executives agree that they must come up with concepts that can work across the industry. \u201cObviously, we\u2019re not going to work with an auto and sell a car. Right? But we can work with an auto, and drive feet to the lot. We can work with a QSR and drive limited time offers, sales for them at the geographic level,\u201d says Evan Adlman, executive vice president of commercial sales and revenue operations for AMC Global Media.<\/p>\n

\n\tOne measurement company that provides third-party data for most media audiences and is backed by industry standards is already keeping tabs on \u201coutcomes.\u201d It\u2019s Nielsen.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe company already offers measurement of outcomes and has been working to incorporate those efforts into Nielsen One, the system currently used to determine viewership of TV programs across linear and digital screens. Executives at Nielsen don\u2019t see TV ratings going away, however, because impressions remain an apples-to-apples way of comparing one TV or streaming program to another. Because different advertisers set a variety of business goals for themselves, using outcomes only would give rise to a chaotic scenario in which one show must compete for foot traffic, ticket sales, coupon orders and more, depending on what the sponsor demanded. Such terrain seems impossible to conquer. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\tOf course, the company\u2019s TV ratings generate millions each year from Nielsen clients, which include Netflix, Roku, Amazon, NBC and Fox. The company may have less impetus to shake up the current infrastructure, however, than the video companies do.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe industry must work harder to make outcomes stick. \u201cWe\u2019re all trying to make our own way. But in the future, we kind of have to all do this together. We can\u2019t have measurement in a vacuum. That is not a currency,\u201d says Fox\u2019s Frank. \u201cSo if outcomes become the currency, we have to kind of all row in the same direction.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TV has long been an industry based on eyeballs. Now media companies are winking more at feet. Fox Corp. is the backer of some of TV\u2019s most-watched programs including Sunday-afternoon NFL games and \u201cThe Masked Singer.\u201d\u00a0 Earlier this week, however, it released a report touting not the number of people who see its shows, but<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[405,1875,3,167,62,1876,1877,1878],"tags":[1871,1872,1873,1874],"class_list":["post-3295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-fox","category-lifestyle","category-netflix","category-news","category-nielsen","category-tv-ratings","category-upfronts","tag-fox","tag-nielsen","tag-tv-ratings","tag-upfronts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}