Via iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. Rankings are by TV ad impressions, for new episodes only. The top TV shows by ad impressions ranking is dominated by NBA playoff games, which increased overall impressions to 4.9 billion from 4.3 billion last week. Second-place NHL playoffs increased ad impressions from 1.02 billion to 1.08 billion.

Catch up quick: ViacomCBS announced a new partnership with VideoAmp last year. NBCUniversal and WarnerMedia (which is now under Warner Bros. Discovery) both linked up with iSpot.tv.Disney is testing new measurement solutions with nearly 100 vendors including iSpot.tv, LiveRamp, VideoAmp, Viant and Moat. It named Samba TV as an official partner in March.

As an agency, it is crucial to work at scale and with speed. As an influencer marketer, I have demoed, tested, and worked with numerous SaaS solutions like CreatorIQ, Klear, Traackr, and a bunch of smaller ones like lefty, Dovetale, and Woomio, to name a few.

This latest report recaps and updates the findings from the first two reports and offers a glossary of sorts of common terminology used in the CTV space. You’ll also find case studies on how LG Ads Solutions helped a major streaming service drive app downloads, how Samsung Ads helped drive winter tourism in Michigan, and how VIZIO Ads’ Household Connect solution helped a cable TV channel reach viewers both on and off the VIZIO platform to drive tune-in for an important season premier. (Key to all stories is the fact that these services own their own hardware and software.) Finally you’ll find exclusive one-on-one interviews with three key industry leaders: VIZIO’s Oz Lang, Samsung’s Justin Evans and LG Ads Solutions’ Serge Matta.

In pointing to success in the platform, Vizio said one media and entertainment client used the platform to quantify a 94% lift in audience engagement and noted 96% of the Vizio viewers who engaged with the campaign wouldn’t have seen it otherwise on linear TV. It noted that an insurance provider used the platform to track conversions to its website, with Vizio ads campaign driving 6.5x more visits to the website than Vizio audiences that didn’t see the ad. Vizio also offers third-party measurement support from partners Nielsen DAR, iSpot.tv, Videoamp, and Comscore, which all license the Inscape data for ad measurement use cases.

Historically, media companies and advertisers relied on Nielsen to establish the media currency that informs the ad buys. However, the rise of players like iSpot.tv, VideoAmp, and ComScore, allow them to select media measurement vendors that have enhanced omnichannel audience viewing data and insights. Advertisers and media companies with more holistic omnichannel media insights can better value media assets and measure potential outcomes. For advertisers, that means more efficient and effective media buys.

With the challenges faced by legacy measurement company Nielsen, and the networks and brands seeking their own solutions, iSpot.tv founder and CEO Sean Muller sees plenty of opportunity. NBCU chose iSpot.tv as its first alternative measurement partner in January. We caught up with Muller a few hours after the Goldman Sachs news broke, and just after he spoke at Adweek’s Convergent TV summit on Wednesday. “My phone’s been blowing up all morning, even as we’re standing here.” For now, Muller says “it’s business as usual,” just more of it. Watch:

Goldman Sachs’ $325 million acquisition of a minority stake comes as iSpot claims that its utility as a TV currency is gaining adoption. The company recently completed 60 currency pilots between NBCUniversal, agency holding companies and brands surrounding the Olympics, Super Bowl and Q1 inventory across NBCU linear and streaming properties. In March, NBCUniversal named iSpot a preferred trading currency for the 2022 Upfront season, and WarnerMedia and Paramount used iSpot in a currency pilot for the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament.
The investment will be deployed to accelerate growth and adoption of real-time, cross-platform TV ad verification, audience measurement and performance metrics for the buy and sell side. That includes scaling engineering and product development, expanding the sales and customer success footprint, continuing to enhance the currencies for the marketplace to transact on for TV and video, and acquiring complementary businesses. “We have been very impressed with iSpot’s world-class data analytics software platform and proprietary systems which have been purpose-built for the increasingly dynamic video measurement space,” said Leonard Seevers, partner and head of media investment for the Private Equity business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management. “We are incredibly excited to partner with Sean and the iSpot team to drive long-term growth and value creation together.”

The new additions to its streaming library marks Vizio's continuation of “its commitment to make entertainment available to everyone,” the company said in a statement. “Following the [introduction] of ad-supported on demand content last November, the team has expanded the entertainment options at an accelerated pace to provide consumers with access to a massive free library of content that they can enjoy as a part of owning a Vizio TV," said Vizio's Vice President of Business Development Katherine Pond.

Sports Business Journal writer Terry Lefton had some interesting data about advertisers returning to nationally televised NBA games this season. Via Lefton, according to an analysis of data from iSpot.TV, the ad spend this season was $449.6 million on nationally aired NBA games, up from $209.8 million last season with 72 games. Lefton said around 112 brands spent over $1 million on national TV ads on NBA games this season — almost double what the figure was last season. These are the kind of data points that speak to a significant increase for the NBA media rights when they are up post 2024-25. We’ll see how it shakes out.

Holding companies expect to transact some individual deals with clients this year using alternative currencies involving other measurement companies like iSpot.tv and VideoAmp. Such deals are estimated to account for between 10% and 30% of total business in this year’s upfront, according to one research executive. Last month, NBCUniversal said that for the first time, it will be transacting some upfront deals on iSpot, alongside Nielsen.

iSpot shows that Warners did spend to open Dumbledore with close to $21M committed to U.S. TV Spots, versus Sony’s $8M on Father Stu. TV ad impressions for Dumbledore were 958M, with spots airing across NBC, ABC, CBS, TBS and Syfy network, during events like Men’s college basketball, Winter Olympics, NBA games and on shows like Good Morning America and Survivor.

The virtual two-day event will take place on April 19 and April 21. The first day will feature a presentation and a panel titled “Influencers are Today’s TV Networks and Publishers.” Panelists will include Dustin Goot, TikTok’s head of creator monetization; Tim Sovay, chief business development, partnership, and operations officer at CreatorIQ; Latraviette Smith-Wilson, chief marketing and equity officer at Horizon Media; among others.

Everyone really is talking more and more about the metaverse—not just Facebook parent Meta and other marketers—according to new data that Tubular Labs, the social video analytics platform, has shared with Datacenter Weekly

Interestingly, we had a little bit of a preview, because NBCUniversal actually released daily audience estimates of its Winter Olympics coverage based on its new “certified” alternative currency provider iSpot.

Advertisers returned to nationally televised NBA games in a big way this season, as the spend on those telecasts was up 114% from the COVID-shortened '20-21 season, according to an analysis of data from iSpot.TV. A full 82-game season led more brands to get in on increased advertising in '21-22 (even with increased primetime TV ad rates), translating to an estimated ad spend of $449.6M on nationally-aired NBA games, up from $209.8M last season with 72 games (that's a 14% uptick in game inventory).

Welcome to the Cheetah Digital Media Issues Series, where veteran journalist, consultant, and advisor Charlie Crowe interviews CMOs and global media directors to uncover what they see as the opportunities, challenges, and other issues surrounding the world of media and brands.

Every weekday we bring you the Ad Age/iSpot Hot Spots, new commercials tracked by iSpot.tv, the always-on TV ad measurement and attribution company. (Scroll down to watch them all.)

The NBA’s popularity with young viewers continues to attract brands. iSpot data reveals the top five ad spenders during the league’s national broadcasts…