NBCUniversal & iSpot Say Their Beijing Olympics Measurement Test Points Toward Viable Nielsen Alternative: “A Monopoly Is Never Good”

deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: NBCUniversal, amazingly, is now in its fifth decade of carrying the Olympic Games. With this month’s Beijing Winter Olympics, though, all of that accumulated institutional knowledge is colliding with a media landscape in massive flux.The company is taking some bold strategic swings with Beijing, even compared with last summer’s Tokyo Olympics.

One example is the decision to stream all events on Peacock, NBCU’s ad-supported streaming service. But the move with perhaps even greater implications for stakeholders in the $70 billion TV advertising business has been a “test-and-learn” effort with ad tracking firm iSpot.The program is part of NBCU’s wide-scale effort to seek alternatives to Nielsen.

ISpot, a nearly 10-year-old startup build on data harvested from 39 million smart-TVs, is among the largest of the dozens of vendors NBCU has invited into its tent.

Nielsen has faced intense criticism from a range of media companies, agencies and trade groups over the past year. They have charged the 99-year-old firm with undercounting linear, streaming and out-of-home viewing, and say its machinery is outmoded and broken.