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Tag: Karthik Rao

  • Jessica Holscott takes charge at Nielsen as chief financial officer

    Jessica Holscott takes charge at Nielsen as chief financial officer

    MUMBAI: Jessica Holscott is no stranger to high-stakes financial strategy. From helming finance at Warner Media to steering the ship at Spotter, she has danced with industry giants-and now, she’s stepping into the spotlight at Nielsen.

    Effective today, Holscott assumes the role of chief financial officer (CFO) for the global audience measurement leader, bringing a razor-sharp financial acumen and an eye for innovation. She will report directly to Nielsen’s chief executive officer Karthik Rao.

    As CFO, Holscott will oversee Nielsen’s financial landscape worldwide, covering financial planning and analysis, tax, controllership, internal audit, and treasury. It’s a tall order, but for someone with Holscott’s pedigree, it’s just another day at the office.

    “Jessica is a proven, world-class financial leader and we are fortunate to have her join Nielsen at such an important time,” said Rao. “Within the past year, we have introduced several groundbreaking products for our clients as we continue to be the leader in TV measurement and streaming TV data. As we continue to innovate and add even more advanced ad tech offerings to our suite, Jessica’s strategic vision and experience will be key for our evolution.”

    Holscott brings over 20 years of financial expertise spanning multiple industries. Most recently, she served as CFO at Spotter, a creator-focused company. Before that, she led financial strategy as CFO and EVP for Warner Media, where she played a pivotal role in steering the finances of Warner Bros., HBO, and the Turner Networks. She also held CFO and EVP roles at HBO, demonstrating her ability to navigate complex financial landscapes. Her past experience includes leading Investor Relations at Time Warner and Aptiv (Delphi), and she cut her teeth at General Electric, where she climbed the ranks from corporate audit to Chief of Staff for the Vice Chairman and CFO.

    “I am honoured to join Nielsen as CFO at such a transformational time for the company and industry. Nielsen continues to raise the bar when it comes to innovation and I’m thrilled to work alongside Karthik and my fellow leaders to keep the momentum going as the leader in audience measurement,” said Holscott.

    Nielsen kicks off the year with its signature drive for innovation and modernisation. The company recently secured accreditation for its big data + panel measurement and out-of-home (OOH) expansion, following the accreditation of its first-party live streaming solution in November 2024. As the trusted industry leader in audience measurement, Nielsen’s ratings and rankings-spanning linear TV, the Nielsen Streaming Top 10, and The Gauge-remain the gold standard in the television and advertising space.

    With Holscott at the financial helm, Nielsen is poised to accelerate its evolution in data analytics and audience measurement.

  • Nielsen, The Trade Desk announce strategic alliance for open internet

    Nielsen, The Trade Desk announce strategic alliance for open internet

    Mumbai: Nielsen and The Trade Desk on Thursday announced a strategic partnership to power identity resolution for open internet measurement in key international markets around the world. 

    The Trade Desk will help fuel Nielsen’s demographic data starting with France, Italy and the United Kingdom. Japan, Australia and Germany will launch on 1 April, with plans to launch in other Asian and European markets, in addition to Canada and Mexico, on a regular cadence following the initial releases in 2022. 

    Nielsen will integrate demographic data provided by The Trade Desk into the Nielsen ID System to provide more scope and accuracy in Nielsen’s digital ad measurement for the open internet, thereby connecting digital impressions to demographics across millions of devices. This will help in advancing more robust measurement and reporting across digital media, particularly over-the-page advertising, in key international markets that have the most room to benefit.  

    Advertisers and publishers can use Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings with more confidence knowing that the solution is aimed towards appropriately assigning and deduplicating audience demographics across mobile and PC platforms when a digital ad is viewed. With this initiative, Nielsen becomes a preferred measurement provider of The Trade Desk and builds on the two companies’ long-standing relationship.

    As part of the Nielsen ID System, the Nielsen ID Graph is calibrated against, and validated by, Nielsen’s people-based panels and truth sets. This deal will further position Nielsen to scale its ID Resolution System globally and truly deliver deduplicated audiences across linear and digital platforms as part of Nielsen One, its cross-media measurement solution.  

    “This strategic partnership with The Trade Desk immediately scales Nielsen’s Identity System globally, and showcases our commitment to independent measurement and marketplace interoperability, facilitating an open ecosystem for the media industry, with audiences de-duplicated across multiple platforms,” said Nielsen COO Karthik Rao. “We continue to evolve our technologies and methodologies as we move towards Nielsen One and this is a very important milestone for that vision of true cross-platform measurement across all screens, underpinned by a strong digital measurement capability.”

    “As the world’s largest independent demand-side platform, The Trade Desk is in a prime position to provide the open internet with a standard of measurement that improves data-driven decisioning, advertising performance and transparency,” stated The Trade Desk chief data officer Michelle Hulst. “We have long believed that it takes all of us to support the digital media ecosystem, especially in the world of measurement. We look forward to advancing the open internet together with Nielsen internationally.”

  • Nielsen One Alpha launches with Disney and Magna

    Nielsen One Alpha launches with Disney and Magna

    Mumbai: Nielsen has revealed the first iteration of Nielsen One – its single cross-platform measurement solution. The newest advancement ‘Nielsen One Alpha’ deduplicated ad measurement will be debuting at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. 

    Alpha will continue to evolve with new feature additions, enhancements, and model improvements leading up to the launch of Nielsen One in the fourth quarter of 2022.

    Disney and Magna have joined several agencies, advertisers, networks, and digital publishers as Nielsen One Alpha participants from both the buy and sell sides of the industry. Access to Nielsen One Alpha will give users the ability to measure advertising content across linear as well as digital platforms and provide holistic and harmonised ad metrics. 

    Nielsen One Alpha will be specific to ad campaigns, unveiling the first cross-platform measurement system of its kind that offers both comparability and audience deduplication across all screens (linear TV, connected TV, computer and mobile). Media buyers and sellers will for the first time have the most holistic view of their ads across consumer delivery systems and platforms in a harmonised manner—crucial as the linear and digital landscapes continue to rapidly converge. The deduplicated ad measurement metrics account for age and gender information.

    “All our hard work this past year has positioned us to take this significant step in fundamentally changing the game and providing the industry with what it wants, needs and deserves,” said Nielsen COO Karthik Rao.

    “We are on track to deliver our single cross-platform measurement solution in the fourth quarter of 2022, as planned and in a manner that will support the $100 billion video advertising ecosystem. The Alpha launch serves as a clear proof point in our ability to deliver and we are working closely with a diverse group of clients on this important step. In fact, Nielsen One will bring together all the intelligence we have to date in order to help clients capitalise on consumers’ rapidly shifting media habits,” added Rao.

    Nielsen will continue to release major enhancements to Nielsen One, leading up to its December 2022 launch, aimed at expanding its coverage, delivering comparability across linear TV and digital and strengthening the quality and usability of its data solutions.  

    “There’s a critical need for the evolution of measurement to truly reflect audiences and engagement, and Disney is uniquely positioned to help define and develop that roadmap,” stated Disney media & entertainment distribution head of research, insights and analytics Julie DeTraglia. “We are pleased to join the Nielsen One Alpha program to ensure it accurately creates a holistic view of ad performance and content viewership for the industry.”

    “We are pleased to be working with Nielsen to provide insight and feedback regarding Nielsen One and ensure it delivers on its promise of being a truly holistic cross-screen measurement solution,” said Magna EVP and managing director of audience intelligence & strategy Brian Hughes.

    This news builds on a series of industry-leading enhancements made by Nielsen over the past year, including the transformation of its digital measurement, onboarding big data for inclusion into its National TV measurement service in September 2022, rebranding its streaming suite, unveiling its cookieless approach, rolling out an ID Resolution System and most recently, enhancing its national television measurement by measuring viewing in a more precise manner with individual commercial metrics.

  • Nielsen to acquire TV, music & movie metadata firm Gracenote

    Nielsen to acquire TV, music & movie metadata firm Gracenote

    MUMBAI: It was just a couple of years ago that Gracenote went ahead and acquired Indian TV listings and data company What’s On. Now, Gracenote has been acquired by TV viewing monitor Nielsen for a tab of $560 million (Rs 3,805.6 crore) from Tribune Media Services. The two companies announced this earlier today in the U.S.

    The transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of 2017. The transaction is expected to be financed through a combination of cash and debt. Nielsen was advised on the transaction by PJT Partners and worked with Baker & McKenzie as legal advisors.

    With this transaction, Nielsen will acquire the data and technology that underpins the programming guides and personalized user experience for major video, music, audio and sports content. The acquisition extends Nielsen’s footprint with major clients by including Gracenote’s global content database which spans across platforms including multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), smart televisions, streaming music services, connected devices, media players and in-car infotainment systems.

    Gracenote provides reference information for over 12 million movie and television listings and 200 million music tracks, and drives the interfaces of the major streaming digital media services, as well as the connected technology systems in over 75 million automobiles. The company is the industry standard for automatic content recognition (ACR) technology, powering the discovery and recommendation engines used by world’s largest television, music and automotive companies.

    By bringing Gracenote’s capabilities into its measurement framework, Nielsen will have the ability to provide clients with deeper analytics on consumer behavior and offer an unprecedented view of audience engagement from discovery to consumption. As part of the Nielsen Total Audience measurement framework, Gracenote’s intelligent metadata will help meet the viewership monitoring agencies clients’ needs in an addressable world where marketers target customers and optimize campaigns in real time. The inclusion of this data will also allow media companies to optimize their content for specific audiences.

    In addition, Gracenote’s long-term client relationships across TV, audio, sports and auto will be further amplified through Nielsen’s global reach and position as the leader in audience measurement and intelligence.

    “Gracenote’s metadata and content recognition technology fuels the interfaces of the major video, music and in-car infotainment systems that consumers engage with every day. This acquisition provides Nielsen with a significant asset in our mission of measuring and understanding consumer behavior,” said Nielsen expanded verticals president Karthik Rao in a press release.

    Added Gracenote CEO John Batter: “For the past decade, Gracenote has connected millions of people every day to the TV shows, sports, movies and music they love, making entertainment more accessible and discoverable. We are excited for the opportunity to take the next step with Nielsen and expand our global reach by continuing to deliver innovative, insights-based solutions to clients.”

  • Nielsen to acquire TV, music & movie metadata firm Gracenote

    Nielsen to acquire TV, music & movie metadata firm Gracenote

    MUMBAI: It was just a couple of years ago that Gracenote went ahead and acquired Indian TV listings and data company What’s On. Now, Gracenote has been acquired by TV viewing monitor Nielsen for a tab of $560 million (Rs 3,805.6 crore) from Tribune Media Services. The two companies announced this earlier today in the U.S.

    The transaction is expected to close during the first quarter of 2017. The transaction is expected to be financed through a combination of cash and debt. Nielsen was advised on the transaction by PJT Partners and worked with Baker & McKenzie as legal advisors.

    With this transaction, Nielsen will acquire the data and technology that underpins the programming guides and personalized user experience for major video, music, audio and sports content. The acquisition extends Nielsen’s footprint with major clients by including Gracenote’s global content database which spans across platforms including multichannel video programming distributors (MVPDs), smart televisions, streaming music services, connected devices, media players and in-car infotainment systems.

    Gracenote provides reference information for over 12 million movie and television listings and 200 million music tracks, and drives the interfaces of the major streaming digital media services, as well as the connected technology systems in over 75 million automobiles. The company is the industry standard for automatic content recognition (ACR) technology, powering the discovery and recommendation engines used by world’s largest television, music and automotive companies.

    By bringing Gracenote’s capabilities into its measurement framework, Nielsen will have the ability to provide clients with deeper analytics on consumer behavior and offer an unprecedented view of audience engagement from discovery to consumption. As part of the Nielsen Total Audience measurement framework, Gracenote’s intelligent metadata will help meet the viewership monitoring agencies clients’ needs in an addressable world where marketers target customers and optimize campaigns in real time. The inclusion of this data will also allow media companies to optimize their content for specific audiences.

    In addition, Gracenote’s long-term client relationships across TV, audio, sports and auto will be further amplified through Nielsen’s global reach and position as the leader in audience measurement and intelligence.

    “Gracenote’s metadata and content recognition technology fuels the interfaces of the major video, music and in-car infotainment systems that consumers engage with every day. This acquisition provides Nielsen with a significant asset in our mission of measuring and understanding consumer behavior,” said Nielsen expanded verticals president Karthik Rao in a press release.

    Added Gracenote CEO John Batter: “For the past decade, Gracenote has connected millions of people every day to the TV shows, sports, movies and music they love, making entertainment more accessible and discoverable. We are excited for the opportunity to take the next step with Nielsen and expand our global reach by continuing to deliver innovative, insights-based solutions to clients.”