Viacom Is Targeting Non-Nielsen–Based Advertising

In fiscal 2016, Viacom (VIAB) is expecting improved ratings from Nielsen. Nielsen ratings are important to Viacom’s advertising revenue. Nielsen’s program ratings and other demographic information give advertisers an idea of the size of its target audience and its demographic.

However, at a UBS (UBS) conference late last year, Viacom stated that it felt Nielsen ratings measured the viewership of content on television but not the viewership of content streamed on various electronic devices. It is one of the reasons the company is targeting 50% of its advertising to come from non-Nielsen–measured advertising.

This month, Viacom entered into a multiyear agreement with comScore (SCOR) for audience measurement across multiple platforms. It includes linear TV, video-on-demand, digital, and over-the-top.

Under the terms of the agreement, Viacom will have access to comScore’s “cross-platform measurement tools and advanced demographic capabilities,” which will be used by Viacom Vantage, Viacom’s suite of advertising products.

Viacom stated at a Deutsche Bank (DB) investor conference earlier this month that Viacom intends to triple the number of advertisers using Vantage. The reason for Viacom’s focus on monetizing Vantage is that Viacom’s top 100 advertising clients account for 75%–80% of its advertising revenue. Viacom is concentrating particularly on the top 50 of these top 100 clients.

Viacom accounts for 0.28% of the PowerShares QQQ Trust Series 1 ETF (QQQ). If you’re interested in exposure to the television sector, note that QQQ has 4.7% exposure to that sector.

Now let’s move on to affiliate fees and explore Viacom’s carriage renewal agreement with Dish Network (DISH).