David Campanelli: Celebs Rumors

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Many TV networks have struck measurement deals with VideoAmp, one of a handful of companies eager to provide an alternative to Nielsen’s tabulation of audiences. Now a company that buys TV time for blue-chip advertisers has done the same. Horizon Media, a large media-buying firm that works for clients including Corona and the National Football League, will use VideoAmp’s audience-measurement tools to help negotiate and transact ad deals between select clients and sellers for national linear TV inventory. Horizon will also use VideoAmp for planning, analytics, and measurement. “There has been a more meaningful movement this year to actually participate with alternative currencies and transact on them,” says David Campanelli, Horizon’s chief investment officer, in an interview. The bulk of the deals, he says, “are still happening on advanced audience targets, versus what we commonly think of with Nielsen ratings, which are demo and impressions counting.”

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorAs TV networks race to find a new yardstick to measure modern video audiences, one top buyer of commercial time says it’s already waiting at the finish line.Horizon Media, an independent Madison Avenue media agency that works for big-spending clients like Berkshire Hathaway’s Geico and Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Corona, said it intends to commit “up to 15% of its deals” in the industry’s coming upfront market using new measurement currencies that don’t rely on the sector’s longtime tabulator of audiences, Nielsen. Horizon issued a request for information to various media companies in the fourth quarter of 2021, and expects to work “with media entities including Paramount, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros.