VAST Challenge to Nielsen Ratings

Frank Maggio, CEO of Erin Media, is poised to announce details of a new ratings service - VAST Ratings - designed to compete with Nielsen's audience measurement system. Earlier this year, Erin filed an antitrust lawsuit against Nielsen Media Research in a bid to break up its ratings monopoly.

Maggio's ReacTV interactive TV network is due to launch early next year, and he believes that Nielsen's ratings system does not provide the second-by-second data he will require. Advertisers on ReacTV are charged according to how many viewers saw a commercial, so Maggio says he needs 'an exact and precise measure of who is watching'.

VAST TV data, he says, will provide second-by-second data across various media, including video-on-demand (VOD) and DVR viewing. Maggio is also finalising an acquisition of radio ratings company Navigauge.

He intends to offer ownership of VAST to broadcasters, cable operators and programmers, advertisers, and agencies, stating that 'media ratings should be owned by American-owned media companies - not foreign companies and not monopolies'.

Using data provided by cable operators, Erin Media and VAST plan to generate a daily rating service that will allow users to observe TV network, VOD and DVR viewing patterns on a second-by-second basis via online video.

'The United States is behind the rest of the world in research and it leads to making television less relevant,' Maggio argues. 'A medium is only as relevant as its metrics, and the metrics today are horrific. There is a need for change'.

Erin Media is online at www.erinmedia.net.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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