Comscore Wins Media Rating Council Accreditation for Some National, Local TV Measurement

variety.com:

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Comscore, Inc. has been granted accreditation by industry watchdog Media Rating Council for its national and local TV-audience measurement services for households and average audiences, a critical win that threatens to erode Nielsen‘s dominance of the field.

Comscore has been working for months to win backing from the MRC, an independent industry organization that scrutinizes various measurement methodologies and whose support is viewed as crucial by many large advertisers that spend millions of dollars on TV.

Nielsen, which lost MRC accreditation for both its national and local measurement services in 2021 before regaining it for national in 2023, still has issues with the MRC regarding its local measurement offering. “Achieving MRC accreditation is a banner moment for Comscore, and positions us as the only accredited company for ‘big data’ reporting for both local TV and at the national level using the same methodology.

It underscores Comscore’s dedication to delivering unparalleled data quality and reliability to our clients, setting new standards for measurement with national scale and local precision,” said Jon Carpenter, Comscore’s CEO, in a statement. “The insights we’re now able to deliver, built on MRC accredited big data measurement, are a massive differentiator for Comscore amid rapid change in the market.” Comscore TV’s estimates for households overlayed with age/gender demographic breaks and households with compositions are not accredited by the MRC at this time, and Comscore said it continues to work with the MRC for that backing.