Measurement Firm ComScore to Acquire Rentrak
While comScore and Rentrak have made great strides in winning over advertisers and media owners with their measurement tools, Nielsen has remained the dominant player. Nielsen is the “gold-standard currency for counting the number of individuals exposed to a piece of content,” said Todd Juenger, a senior analyst at Bernstein, in a report to investors in June.
Still, media companies are increasingly concerned that available TV metrics from Nielsen don’t adequately capture viewing that happens online and on mobile devices. Viacom Inc., VIA 0.80 % owner of MTV and Nickelodeon, has blamed lower ratings at its own channels partly on what it calls Nielsen’s antiquated measurement methods.