MarketingProfs

MediaBuyerPlanner: Nielsen will begin supplying national commercial ratings starting in the fall, Adweek reports. If the networks and advertisers can agree on a standard, something they’ve had trouble doing, the commercial ratings could be used as currency to buy and sell ads by as early as the start of the 2007-08 TV season. But for now, program ratings will continue to be the currency for ad transactions.
A Nielsen representative said it received requests from all five major broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, CW, NBC and Fox) for commercial ratings based on live viewership plus seven days of recorded DVR playback viewing. Nielsen will begin delivering that data “sometime this fall,” the rep said.
The current upfront market was stalled for several weeks as buyers and sellers fought over whether ads for the 2006-07 season would be based on live program ratings or live plus seven day program ratings. The Networks tried to convince buyers, the buyers stood firm, the networks relented, and the market began and is ongoing.