ESPN has agreed with Nielsen to become "one of the first television networks to regularly incorporate measurements of people watching TV outside of their homes in places like bars or health clubs into viewership estimates," according to David Bauder of the AP. The technology "is expected to become available next year." ESPN President John Skipper yesterday said that the impact on the company's ratings "will be dramatic -- and will become part of the negotiations on prices it can command from advertisers." Sports broadcasters "have been particularly vocal in saying Nielsen's at-home measurements don't paint a realistic picture of their audiences" (AP, 5/17). Skipper said, "We will release out-of-home, and you’re going to see some very dramatic out-of-home numbers for ESPN. Those numbers will be incorporated into our self-estimates immediately and they will be part of the Nielsen (rating) numbers starting in ’17 and we think that’s a significant opportunity for us" (NEWSDAY, 5/18). AD AGE's Anthony Crupi noted buyers' openness "remains a question, when they currently get out-of-home impressions free or would even argue that those viewers are already implictly priced in." But ESPN Senior VP/Global Research & Analytics Artie Bulgrin said ESPN "has seen significant lifts in its audience deliveries when those previously undocumented out of home views were recaptured by Nielsen." He said, "The lift we're seeing is actually better than we've expected." Crupi noted ESPN's primetime college football games "gained 9% upon application of the data culled from fans in bars and other external venues." The "bigger the traditional in-home audience, the greater the out-of-home lift." Fox Sports advertising and programming execs on Monday "echoed ESPN's sentiments, saying that out-of-home will be a factor during the summer sell-off, as it looks to monetize this historically untapped source of ratings points." Fox has "documented significant out-of-home deliveries for its marquee sports properties" (ADAGE.com, 5/17).
TARGET AUDIENCE: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Suzanne Vranica reported ESPN is "rolling out a new advertising product that allows marketers to deliver banner ads tailored to the interests of sports fans by using data the company has collected on visitors to its website." Live Connect "lets marketers serve ads on ESPN.com that can reflect a visitor’s favorite team or player." The ad can also "reflect the outcome of a particular game." Shortly after the Thunder won Game 6 of the NBA Western Conference semifinals last week, fans of Oklahoma reading the article “Thunder roll: Spurs eliminated in OKC,” on ESPN.com "were served up a banner ad from Dick’s Sporting Goods that read: 'Big Win For Oklahoma City.'" The ad "prompted viewers to click to be taken to the sporting goods store’s website to shop for gear." Dick's "created roughly 1,000 different display ads, each mentioning different sports, teams, leagues and even possible outcomes of particular games." ESPN then "automatically served up the right ad when a particular type of sports fan visited ESPN.com." The company "plans to roll out a similar tool for video ads that appear on ESPN.com and ESPN’s streaming app within six to nine months" (WSJ.com, 5/17).
