FTC Okays Nielsen Sale of Arbitron LinkMeter System

In the US, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has approved Nielsen's plan to sell off its LinkMeter cross-platform measurement technology to comScore - one of the requirements of the deal agreed for Nielsen to acquire Arbitron.

At the time of the acquisition, both firms were developing national syndicated cross-platform audience measurement services, and critics feared the effect on prices of the elimination of future competition between Nielsen and Arbitron.

The acquisition, which valued Arbitron at $1.26bn, was cleared by the FTC last September, with a condition which safeguarded Arbitron's cross-platform 'Project Blueprint' initiative with comScore and broadcaster ESPN. The proposed deal involved Nielsen transferring Arbitron's interest in the LinkMeter technology, developed specifically for the project, to comScore.

In addition to acquiring the LinkMeter technology, comScore will now be able to licence TV and radio data collected through the Portable People Meter technology (PPM), previously owned by Arbitron.