New Media-Measurement Coalition Launches

NEW YORK: Several big-name advertisers, major media companies and media-planning agencies today formally unveiled the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM), which will explore new ways to measure audiences in today’s wherever, whenever content landscape.

CIMM’s 14 founding members are Time Warner, The Walt Disney Company, Interpublic Group, News Corporation, Viacom, Starcom MediaVest Group Worldwide, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, AT&T, Group M, CBS Corporation, Omnicom Media Group, Discovery Communications and NBC Universal. The group will work to explore and identify new methodologies and approaches to audience measurement.  This includes a series of pilot studies with independent research companies focusing on measurement through set-top-box data and new methods for cross-platform media measurement.  The findings will be made available to CIMM members and will be released publicly. CIMM will be funded by the group’s founding participants, who will hire an independent managing director to oversee day-to-day operations. The consortium is open to welcoming additional content providers, agencies and advertisers.

"As we continue to make our content available across additional and emerging platforms through initiatives like TV Everywhere, it becomes increasingly important to measure consumer interaction with our brands," said Jeff Bewkes, the chairman and CEO of Time Warner. "Comprehensive and accurate measurement will have a direct effect on the continued growth of our industry."

George Bodenheimer, the president of ESPN, Inc. and ABC Sports and co-chairman of Disney Media Networks, said: "When you get down to it, we’re all looking for answers to some very similar questions. It makes sense to come together to help advance the measurement of media across all platforms to serve our strategic needs, while helping the industry build smarter accountability for our advertisers."

Anne Sweeney, the president of Disney/ABC Television Group and co-chair of Disney Media Networks, added: "The digital era has empowered the viewer with choice of content and platform. Better understanding the evolving dynamics of how the audience connects with our content will help us reach them more effectively. This is essential for content providers, agencies, and advertisers alike; and working together will ensure we achieve it."

Chase Carey, deputy chairman, president and COO at News Corporation, stated: "At News Corp. we’ve been calling for more accurate television measurement for some time. We’re happy to support this bold industry initiative—which is the first step in a major movement by media companies and their advertising partners to explore available ways to better measure the various platforms that support video content."

Philippe Dauman, the president and CEO of Viacom, said: "Today’s audiences are consuming more media in more ways than ever before. We all have an urgent need to evolve our methods of measurement such that advertisers and programmers can better understand consumer behavior. CIMM’s strong and coordinated commitment to driving advances and innovation in audience measurement will ultimately help us deliver more value to our advertising and marketing partners."

Nancy Tellem, the president of CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment Group, said: "As more professional content finds its way to multiple platforms it’s imperative that content owners receive value for viewing on these screens. CIMM underscores the mutual need for those on the buying and selling side to come together to establish metrics across all platforms in an accurate and credible way. This announcement shouldn’t be seen as an alternative to Nielsen. It’s quite the contrary; we expect Nielsen, along with other research entities, to be a part of the solution."

David Zaslav, the president and CEO of Discovery Communications, said: "CIMM’s mission is to tackle the industry’s most pressing issues — higher levels of accountability and cross-platform measurement — to enable solutions that keep pace with innovation at the consumer level which will ultimately benefit advertisers, agencies and media companies alike.

Jeff Zucker, the president and CEO of NBC Universal, said: "Twenty-first century media needs 21st century measurement techniques. Existing systems are incapable of accurately measuring the media habits of our audience across today’s multiplicity of platforms. CIMM is an important step in helping to address this problem. As an industry, we can’t afford not to do this, because if we can’t measure our audience accurately, we can’t sell it."

Sir Martin Sorrell, the chief executive of WPP, noted: "Given the recent changes in media consumption habits, it is critical for the various constituencies of our industry to agree on the priorities for the next generation of media measurement systems. Once we have agreed on these priorities, we can identify the most promising opportunities and initiatives and concentrate our future investments on the most effective systems that meet our objectives in this new media environment."