iSpot Acquires Tunity in Bid to Deliver New Measurement of Out of Home Audiences
Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorThe media industry’s measurement wars are expanding beyond counting traditional video audiences.iSpot, the measurement company that figures prominently in plans by NBCUniversal and WarnerMedia to offer alternatives to Nielsen in the sector’s looming “upfront” marketplace, will acquire Tunity, an analytics company that analyzes consumer viewing habits in public locations nationwide, including restaurants, offices, bars and hotels.“We want to account for all viewing across all screens,” says Sean Muller, iSpot’s founder and CEO, in an interview. The Tunity acquisition, he says, could be “powerful, both for our advertising clients who invest heavily in tentpole events and programs that are consumed outside the home and for our media partners.” The companies did not disclose financial terms.Keeping track of so-called “out of home” audiences has become more critical to TV networks, who understand that significant chunks of viewership for news, sports and other live programming is often found outside a consumer’s main habitat.