NBCUniversal appears to be doubling down in its transformation push with a series of new announcements, including a shift from Nielsen measurement currencies for ad sales, and a boosted profile for Peacock. Brandon Blake, entertainment attorney at Blake & Wang P.A, has the news for us.
New Measurement System
NBCUniversal will now be forming their own ‘measurement innovation forum,’ with many of their strongest advertisers signing on to transact through new measurement currencies with them, too. It’s no secret that Nielsen, long the industry standard, has been taking a lot of heat for slow innovation, despite a significant amount of changes to their traditional rating system in the last few years.
Self Service Ads for Peacock
They also announced plans for a ‘self-service’ style advertising platform targeting medium and small brand advertising- the sort of companies that cannot accept multi-million dollar ad buys. They explain this as a push to diversify the advertising market for streaming, unlike the TV landscape, which long had under 2000 key marketers. By diversifying the market further, they hope to attract local businesses and others needing a lower entry point into the ‘TV’ (or rather streaming) ecosystem.
They also announced a range of new advertising formats to choose from, including one targeting the sports market. Here we will see brand ‘sponsorship’ of game highlights. These changes are currently due to roll out in the 2023 fiscal period. We will also see One23, the platform's developer conference, launch mid-February.
All in all, it’s a wealth of change. But it has been apparent for a while that they are pinning their broader streaming hopes on developing Peacock into a stronger, better-positioned brand. This could be an interesting way to achieve it. We may even see the small brand targeting model roll out to competitor platforms if it proves successful, so it’s well worth keeping an eye on.
