Nexstar Media Group has issued an open Request for Proposals seeking “a next-generation audience measurement partner capable of providing data that accurately reflects the scale and power” of its national and local media businesses.
It’s a direct shot at Nielsen, with Nexstar now aligning itself alongside NBCUniversal by expressing the need for “innovative new products.”
But, it could open the door for Nielsen, along with competitors seeking to gain traction in omnichannel audience measurement technology, to build a tool that not only Nexstar’s “reimagined” ad sales group can benefit from, but Nexstar’s peers, too.
As Nexstar is the nation’s No. 1 owner of broadcast television stations in addition to the growing NewsNation cable TV channel, the company founded and led by Chairman/CEO Perry Sook perhaps has more clout than ever, as it also controls The CW Network.
Thus, Nexstar’s expressed belief that media measurement “must innovate in new ways, with innovative new products and cutting-edge technology that better serve the needs of advertisers, publishers, and consumers” represents perhaps the most significant call for change since NBCUniversal embarked on its desire to reimagine audience measurement. That company’s efforts, incidentally, were led by ex-Nielsen executive Kelly Abcarian.
At Nexstar, Chief Revenue Officer Michael Strober commented, “Nexstar has an unprecedented collection of media assets, including the largest local broadcast group in
the United States, a national cable news network, a free over-the-air television network, and a variety of digital media properties, and we need deeper, richer data about the audiences interacting with them.
“We believe current methods of audience measurement inadequately reflect our national reach and the effectiveness of the local activation we deliver to advertisers and marketers,” Strober continued. “We need to accelerate the pace of innovation in cross-platform measurement not just with national content, but with the content generated in every one of our local markets. We also must ensure that the best data is operational across the company.”
For Nexstar, the intention is to “modernize the way audience measurement is conducted and utilized with advertising clients.”
Leading the effort with oversight of the RFP process is recently appointed Vice President of Measurement Innovation Hanna Gryncwajg.
Nexstar adds that it has also been actively engaging with new measurement partners. Earlier this year, this saw Nexstar work with both VideoAmp and iSpot to deliver linear and streaming audience data generated across its media platforms.
“Our work with several new measurement partners has demonstrated the benefit of fresh thinking and the need for a much more expansive set of measurement capabilities across our entire footprint,” Gryncwajg said. “We are looking for innovations and roadmaps that can deliver game-changing improvements to help us maximize the effectiveness of Nexstar’s portfolio for advertisers across the whole funnel – from awareness to conversion and purchase. We need to measure what matters most, and we need to do that across all of our endpoints with speed and precision.”
