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Time Warner derides ‘gaudy numbers’ of digital giants like YouTube claiming viewing should be measured on a per minute basis

TV giant Time Warner has hit back at the "big gaudy numbers" being bandied around by digital players like YouTube and AOL, claiming buyers should be measuring online audiences on a per minute basis rather than total impressions.

TV giant Time Warner has hit back at the “big gaudy numbers” being bandied around by digital players like YouTube and AOL, claiming buyers should be measuring online audiences on a per minute basis rather than total impressions.

Time Warner

LR Time Warner COO Joan Gilmman and Cunningham. Time Warner noted that even Facebook would rank poorly if it was a TV show on a per minute basis.

The world’s third largest TV network used its Newfront presentation to counter the advances digital players who looking to take money from traditional TV by moving into the live streaming market.

“We often hear a lot of big gaudy numbers,” said Sean Cunningham CEO & president of the Video Advertising Bureau, which devised the metric. “But when you get down to how many people in any given minute how are they tracking against a TV program?

“Facebook would be 158th against a television program, YouTube 354th and on and on. This is not good versus bad; this is about achieving balance and keeping the conversation going in ways that are comparable.” 

Time Warner challenged the industry to look at the per minute comparison as an ongoing metric, a move that comes after YouTube used its Newfront event to claim its mobile audience is now larger than the prime time audience of traditional TV networks in the US.

“We have devised a simple way that is universally understandable,” said Cunningham, in an on stage interview with Time Warner COO Joan Gillman. “Everyone understands what a minute is and what we need to look at is in any given minute what is the average audience of any of these instruments.

“As an industry we need to put pressure on the currency providers to look at this. This is a simple way of understanding it.”

Time Warner told the room full of media buyers that it valued the impressions it sold and that it wants to improve the metrics in the space

“The choice today is not a matter of TV versus digital. Cable TV is digital,” said Fred Bucher, chief marketer at Time Warner. “The advertising world has changed and consumers are engaging with media differently.

“Adfraud, inconsistent ad standards, the lack of transparency and just plain out misinformation – where it is hard to know how many people you are reaching – but at Time Warner Media we value your media.

“Impressions are assets you pay for them and we believe you should get them.”

Nic Christensen in New York

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