MRC Accredits Comscore for Both National and Local TV Ratings

• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, 4 hours ago

The Media Rating Council (MRC) has granted accreditation to Comscore for household and average audience estimates for both its national and local TV audience measurement services.

The move makes Comscore the only local TV audience measurement service accredited by the MRC, following the council's decision to suspend accreditation of both Nielsen's local and national services in 2021.

It also makes Comscore the only "alternative currency" currently accredited for national TV audience measurement utilizing a "Big Data" methodology.

The MRC re-accredited Nielsen's panel-based national TV service in April 2023.

iSpot.tv currently is accredited for TV occurrence data only.

Comscore noted that it also marks the first time any TV audience-measurement provider has been accredited in all 210 measured local markets based on device-tuning measurement.

Comscore's accreditation comes as big advertisers and agencies are planning their 2024-25 upfront TV buying strategies, although many so far have indicated they plan to stick primarily with Nielsen's unaccredited service for continuity reasons and to supplement with enhanced audience-measurement deals utilizing alternative currencies.