Marshall Cohen’s Post

GAUGING INTEREST Nielsen dropped their "new-look" Distributor Gauge yesterday. My take - with info they omit - is below. Nielsen chose their own headlines for this Gauge, as is their right, focussing their boldface type on: DISNEY REMAINS TOP MOUSE TUBI DRIVES GROWTH FOR FOX FAST IS FAST! All are true-ish. To be honest, digging into the numbers not much changed at all from their April Gauge... but... - There's one less publisher on THIS May Gauge - dropping from 15 publishers tracked to 14. Why tho? - Nielsen notes that FOX jumped from 6.1% to 6.4% in large part driven by Tubi. Nice. - They fail to note that the LARGEST growth comes from what they do not track and do not report: Unaccounted Viewing, which grew more than 1% from 26.3% in April to 27.4% in May. - ERRYBODY in TV needs to note that it takes ALL OF DISNEY to beat YouTube by itself - and ALL of NBCUniversal, Paramount, and Disco Bros to lose to YouTube. This Gauge is much more useful and instructive than the OG Gauge. But it STILL begs that we continue to ask MORE questions of Nielsen, not less. AND it calls on trade journalists to not JUST copy-and-paste their headlines, but to read the data, ask questions, and then write your own. I dissected how Gauge Reboot is better than Original Taste Gauge, why the two Gauges are actually better as one, and all the ways they still fall short, here: https://lnkd.in/gaBZ3KfC #WhoWatchesTheWatchmen

Guideline’s U.S. All Media Market Brief revealed that all product category groups expanded in at the start of Q2—except for technology and entertainment and media. In fact, half of the product category groups ramped up by double digits. 📈📈 Want to learn more? View the full media brief: https://hubs.la/Q02H9PY30 #AllMediaMarketBrief #GuidelineData

FYI: Boston Omaha Reports Link Media Revenue Up 3.8% in 1Q 2024 (Billboard Insider): Here are the results for Link Media Outdoor, Boston Omaha’s wholly owned out of home subsidiary, sponsored and analyzed by SignValue. SignValue’s Take:  Link Media is a case study in how to benefit from out of home scale economies.  Revenue grew 3.8%, in the first quarter or 2024 versus expenses growth of only 0.3%, which […] #DOOH #digitalbillboards #digitalsignage

ICYMI: Boston Omaha Reports Link Media Revenue Up 3.8% in 1Q 2024 (Billboard Insider): Here are the results for Link Media Outdoor, Boston Omaha’s wholly owned out of home subsidiary, sponsored and analyzed by SignValue. SignValue’s Take:  Link Media is a case study in how to benefit from out of home scale economies.  Revenue grew 3.8%, in the first quarter or 2024 versus expenses growth of only 0.3%, which […] #DOOH #digitalbillboards #digitalsignage

Boston Omaha Reports Link Media Revenue Up 3.8% in 1Q 2024 (Billboard Insider): Here are the results for Link Media Outdoor, Boston Omaha’s wholly owned out of home subsidiary, sponsored and analyzed by SignValue. SignValue’s Take:  Link Media is a case study in how to benefit from out of home scale economies.  Revenue grew 3.8%, in the first quarter or 2024 versus expenses growth of only 0.3%, which […] #DOOH #digitalbillboards #digitalsignage

Nielsen revamps audience measurement metrics. Now listing all distributors, platforms, channels vs. split by tech | FilmBudget.com ESHAP #neilsen #neilsengauge #eshap #media #tv #television #metrics #audience #streaming #broadcast #tvseries #platforms #distributors #movies #entertainment #filmmaking #distributors #tech #hollywood #producer

THE NIELSEN GAUGE LEAKS I don’t typically break news here. Chasing headlines is not nearly as satisfying as analyzing them for the truth. Breaking news and scrutinizing it are usually at odds. Today, though, those interests collide. Over the weekend, I was sent an advanced look at a new product from Nielsen - one of my favorite monopolies to study. It’s a new twist on their old (and odd) TV viewing barometer, The Gauge - in my college drop-out opinion, one of the most misused and misunderstood tools of obfuscation in Media. Nielsen has been sharing the new spin-off, dubbed The Media Distributor Gauge, with clients in the last week. Clients of monopolies are oft disgruntled. Many of them read me. Thus my early access to the materials. Below I compare the old and new versions of The Gauge. After years of harshly critiquing them and their Gauge, I find myself in the awkward position of congratulating and thanking #Nielsen for this substantial improvement. With this new, improved tool, Nielsen does two things I’ve been talking about for a long time: The new Nielsen Gauge looks at all television - Streaming, Broadcast, Pay TV, FAST/AVOD - as TV. It also, finally, measures viewership not by single channels, but by publishers, across all their holdings - aka how TV media is bought. This new view demonstrably shifts the power dynamic of the measurement tool pretty dramatically… which is precisely why so many publishers have been waiting for, and demanding, it. For buyers of media and sellers of content, this data through this new lens is substantially more valuable than the oft-misconstrued “OG Gauge.” Yet, even with more data and more players, Nielsen’s remake leaves much to be desired. For my slightly advanced view and review of Nielsen's Reboot of The Gauge, hit the link and dive in: https://lnkd.in/gaBZ3KfC #television #measurement #streaming #CTV

Boston Omaha Reports Link Media Revenue Up 3.8% in 1Q 2024 (Billboard Insider): Here are the results for Link Media Outdoor, Boston Omaha’s wholly owned out of home subsidiary, sponsored and analyzed by SignValue. SignValue’s Take:  Link Media is a case study in how to benefit from out of home scale economies.  Revenue grew 3.8%, in the first quarter or 2024 versus expenses growth of only 0.3%, which […] #DOOH #digitalbillboards #digitalsignage

ICYMI: Boston Omaha Reports Link Media Revenue Up 3.8% in 1Q 2024 (Billboard Insider): Here are the results for Link Media Outdoor, Boston Omaha’s wholly owned out of home subsidiary, sponsored and analyzed by SignValue. SignValue’s Take:  Link Media is a case study in how to benefit from out of home scale economies.  Revenue grew 3.8%, in the first quarter or 2024 versus expenses growth of only 0.3%, which […] #DOOH #digitalbillboards #digitalsignage

What a difference a well-designed data visualization makes. Nielsen is finally catching up with rapid changes in TV viewing habits. Despite streaming being the most popular way for people to consume television, how we measure streaming had been an afterthought--as evidenced in the old visualization below. Here's what we can learn by dissecting this visualization. 1) Definitions matter! Defining metrics is a painstaking job, that often leads to pointless pontification (I have been in the trenches). Yet a single, well-defined metric can change how we view the world. By combining broadcast, streaming, cable, and VOD into one category - you are redefining what we think TV is. Sure this puts YouTube and Disney in the same category -- but you know what--that's what is playing on the TV in my house. 2) It's user-centered. The people who use this report typically buy advertising from these networks (also known as publishers). They think about their budgets based on how many people they can reach. In the old chart, it's difficult to derive how much budget should be set aside for YouTube compared to more traditional broadcast networks. 3) It uses good data visualization principles! You wouldn't believe the reactions, I get when I ask not to use pie charts in slides. Compare these two charts. The new chart uses sound data visualization principles--a bar chart sorted in order from largest to smallest. It will take you less than three seconds to understand what it's telling us. The old pie chart will leave you scratching your head no matter how much you squint. #datavisualization #nopiecharts #edwardtufte #beautifuldata #media