Nielsen’s New Owners Face Old TV-Measurement Challenges

variety.com:

Brian Steinberg Senior TV EditorNielsen investors just got a nice payday. Will the company’s biggest customers benefit financially as well?The media measurement giant raised eyebrows last week when it agreed to be sold to a private-­equity consortium led by Evergreen Coast Capital Corp., an affiliate of activist fund Elliott Management — which has been lobbying for a Nielsen sale — and Brookfield Business Partners.

The all-cash deal for $28 per share, or $16 billion, represents a 60% premium over Nielsen’s closing stock price as of March 11.Now, the nation’s TV networks, which depend on Nielsen’s TV ratings as the basis for billions of dollars in advertising deals, want to be sure they’re going to make more money with the company as well.

Such a prospect hasn’t been certain in recent months. TV networks and their owners have grown disenchanted with Nielsen’s ability to count viewers who may watch their favorite programs via digital means, on mobile screens or through streaming video.

Led by CEO David Kenny, Nielsen in September lost industry accreditation for its national TV ratings service and is working on a new measurement methodology that would tabulate unduplicated cross-stream viewership, but it will not be rolled out in full for several months — well after the start of the industry’s annual “upfront” ad sales market, which has long been based on Nielsen measures.