National Measurement Sophistication Is Now Flowing into Local

I asked to see some examples of the data, and Nielsen provided these views, anonymizing the parties involved. The first slide below is November 2025 data for a specific brand campaign that ran on three broadcast stations in Los Angeles. Looking at that campaign, we can see that by including the streaming part of those stations’ audience, reach of adults 25-54 was increased by +19%. It’s easy to see why any station would want the streaming part of their audience counted in the local currency.

79.1% of the total reach is reached only by linear TV. 76% of the total OTT reach is not reached by linear. Comparing the linear and OTT patterns, linear generated more frequency than OTT in this campaign.

Stations are also buying local Gauge reports to understand how their market is transitioning to streaming vs. the national Gauge. Here’s a look at how a few of those markets look in terms of the shares of audience of linear broadcast, linear cable, and streaming.

Nielsen is also selling measurement of advanced client first-party (1P) audiences locally, and doing outcome measurement locally, including matched market trials. The most innovative of stations are already taking advantage of these new services, and it seems likely that all stations will soon be using these advanced tools to grow and retain new revenues, in my opinion, probably taking back some revenue from digital based on proving higher ROAS from linear+OTT.

Stations have been losing ad revenue share to digital for some time, as is the case nationally with networks, and were frustrated that the MRC viewability standard for digital video was two seconds, while in local TV, the industry convention has always been a 5-minute rule in order to get credit in the Average Quarter Hour (AQH) metric. TVB, CIMM and stations asked Nielsen for relief from this unfair situation and at the request of buyers & sellers, Nielsen is examining the possibility of changing to 1MQ (a viewer viewing 1 to 15 minutes in a quarter hour would be credited as audience to that quarter hour) and has begun to deliver Impact Data for clients to examine what this could mean to their business.

It's interesting to see the way the new Nielsen operates. And how very much like a real JIC as they have in dozens of countries, is the new Nielsen, regularly making changes based on the votes of its clients. Somewhat similar in governance to a foreign JIC, even Nielsen’s MRC Accreditation is based on client voting, not based on the auditor’s reports and MRC recommendations: there can be instances where MRC recommends Accreditation but is overruled by the votes of MRC Members. Ironically, the new Nielsen tends to make more changes requested by its clients than the old Nielsen, but then the clients complain about the extra work involved whenever there is any change. We all complain about change, and we all strive to make change happen; it’s baked into our DNA, and no doubt gives God a chuckle.

In the futur,e I would expect that Nielsen will be asked to help stations et al aggregate their own big data across stations and across groups, and perhaps at even higher levels like the U.S. “JIC”. It’s a big job to do it yourself, thankless, and presents job risk. Eventually, the old tradition of bashing Nielsen as a cathartic might be softened by the new Nielsen’s desire to please. At that point, reasonable options for cooperative efficiencies can be considered.

New Gen AI Agent ODIS Wants Alpha Testers

Thanks to Pedro Almeida, founder and CEO of MediaProbe, my companies are now trying out ODIS, a way of going from text prompts to video, which is very easy to use and a lot less frustrating than everything else we have tested. Here is a video that was created in about ten minutes with a prompt of a total of only 38 words.

How come it is easier to use and generate product that looks as good as any other? It’s because (a) it has an AI Director that has been trained in all of the skills needed to make movies, television series, and ads, (b) it is an Agent that goes out and picks the right Gen AI tool for the job, which could change from one shot to the next. ODIS has licensed all the other major Gen AI players to allow this to be done legally. Thus, it becomes a one-stop shop for people who want to create good videos from simple prompts, letting an expert Director use skills to make it as professional as possible.

We are enjoying the Alpha tester experience and, like the people at ODIS, I offered to use this space to let my friends know about the free opportunity. Here is where to apply to be an Alpha.

Cover Image Source: Wikimedia Commons

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