Measurement company iSpot.tv said it hired Will Waldron as VP of statistical standards and practices. .
Waldron, who had been lead scientist at the U.S. Census Bureau and manager of statistical methods at Nielsen, will oversee iSpot’s Media Rating Council accreditation process and methodological practices for its TV ratings and ad measurement products.
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“iSpot is ushering in a new era for audience measurement and one that can make the TV marketplace more equitable,” said Waldron. “iSpot recognizes the societal value of properly measuring the TV consumption of racial and ethnic minorities in service of the most representative sample of viewing. Advertisers and networks want to reach these communities to better address their unique needs with more specialized product offerings. Minority communities are thus better served when their specific media consumption is more reliably measured.”
Minority representation is a big issues in the audience measurement business. iSpot said that its big data approach, pulling viewing information from millions of smart TVs, minimizes the issue.
iSpot says it gets data from 3.9 million Hispanic households,, 2.275 million Black households and olds and 975,000 Asian households in calculating its viewers numbers. Those numbers are big enough to ensure proper representation, the company said.
iSpot is one of the companies looking to provide the TV industry with an alternative to Nielsen. Nielsen last week said it was delaying the use of its big-data product for making media buying transactions while it enhances its methodology. ■
