Comscore is launching Comscore QuickScore, a television ratings report that it said provides viewership insights to local media within 48 hours of broadcast for faster.
The company said the product should help with more efficient ad sales, programming and promotional decisions. QuickScore relies on Comscore's television footprint – which uses passive measurement of 30 million U.S. homes – and advanced audience demographics to deliver a representative view of local television consumption within the time frame.
Comscore worked with partners including Nexstar to launch QuickScore, which will provide preliminary ratings for the top 30 local markets as well as the Columbus, Ohio and Hartford, Connecticut local markets and will report initial ratings for ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox affiliates in these markets, along with major independents such as WGN/Chicago. The company said QuickScore will continue to expand into other markets in the coming quarters.
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"Nexstar Broadcasting is encouraged with the development of QuickScore and Comscore's more expedient ratings delivery service," said Tim Busch, president of Nexstar Broadcasting, in a statement. "We look forward to working with Comscore in their newest offering to provide timely ratings data across many Nexstar markets, and with our advertising and marketing partners, who will receive the benefit of this additional viewership reporting."
"We are proud to have quickly developed this ability to get our clients the insights they need in the time frame when it matters the most," said Bill Livek, CEO and vice chairman of Comscore, in a statement. "QuickScore will allow our clients to expedite decisions to positively impact their programming, promotional and advertising strategy."
In the news release, Comscore said its passive measurement is a more stable option than panel-based television measurement, which it said "struggles with unprecedented challenges to maintain panel quality because of sample declines and technology maintenance during the Coronavirus crisis."
Nielsen jumped in to defend its panels and note that it also uses uses return path data in many of its markets as an added data source to complement its panels.
"Nielsen has done groundbreaking work in the area of adjusting big data to make it usable for currency grade measurement. Using big data without such adjustments results in inaccurate, incomplete and potentially biased estimates," said Peter Bradbury, chief commercial officer in the U.S. for Nielsen. "Ultimately, when your only tool is a hammer, you treat every project like it's a nail. Nielsen is uniquely fortunate, thanks to significant investment and decades of leadership, to have built a large chest filled with unique tools so that we can bring the right and best choice to each individual initiative."