The business of measuring what people watch is overdue for a shake up.
That’s according to Bryan Goski, chief revenue officer of media measurement firm VideoAmp, who believes his company’s approach of providing a more holistic view of not only viewership data, but how it links up with consumer interests gives it a potential edge against the leader in this business, legacy metric company Nielsen.
“We believe that the metric ecosystem has been broken for decades and there is room for improvement,” Goski told TheWrap, noting the Media Rating Council (MRC) and Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) has publicly acknowledged this challenge.
On Wednesday, VideoAmp said it would pair its TV ratings with MediaRadar’s advertising intelligence platform, providing clients with a “complete look” at audience and ad competitive data side-by-side, rather than the “silos” the data typically sits in, according to Goski.
It’s a key way that VideoAmp hopes to distinguish itself in the audience measurement game, which is largely dominated by Nielsen. For Goski, the key to winning lies in evolving with the times, as seen by VideoAmp’s aim to deliver holistic data across linear and streaming, as well as demo info beyond the age and gender once valued by traditional TV.
The partnership goes beyond traditional TV demo measurements — which rely on measurements like adults 25-54 or women 18-49 — to single out advanced audience segments, like women 18-24 who own their cars for example, in an effort to help advertisers prove their value in the marketplace. “TV still commands $50 plus billion of media spend — every dollar has to be justified, especially today,” Goski told TheWrap.
“We feel like the people that are currently providing that measurement are doing so insufficiently, and they’re devaluing the content and ad revenue of our partners, so we’re not going to relent on that. We’re going to continue to innovate,” Goski said.
Goski said the key to improving audience measurement efforts is to create mechanisms that can capture data across platforms, as digital and streaming services continue to grow their audiences while broadcast and cable lose steam. Historically, he noted, measurement systems were based on small sets of data, or what is known in the business as the panel approach — which is used by Nielsen and other legacy providers. Now, media measurement companies can partner with digital and streaming services to get a fuller picture of their audiences — if they’re willing to share the data.
“Rather than relying on small sample sets that we’re going to extrapolate … what we actually want to do is have as census-level as possible data in a way that makes our clients feel comfortable [to] pass to us so that we can represent in the ecosystem the most full, the most robust view of their data that we believe no one else has,” Goski said.
Speaking of evolving toward the future, VideoAmp has embraced AI along the way, with Goski noting that AI serves as the “underpinning” of the company’s data processing, as newly appointed CEO Tony Fagan mandated the company to “move into the space very aggressively.” The company has been open about its goal to move towards a “fully AI-powered media performance platform,” with Goski pointing to a chat function clients can use to understand how certain audience segments are resonating with their programming.
While Nielsen stands as the undeniable ratings measurement top dog, VideoAmp has established itself with some of the biggest companies in the industry, including Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal, Fox, TelevisaUnivision AMC Networks and A+E Networks. Paramount notably relied on VideoAmp during its contract dispute with Nielsen in 2025. And Goski noted the “high” likelihood that VideoAmp will work with streamers later in the year “to make sure that we have not only the most robust but the most accurate data set.”
One area that has drawn in high-profile clients for VideoAmp is live events and sports, with Netflix utilizing the measurement company for viewership of its live WWE events.
And Goski remains bullish about VideoAmp’s growth moving forward. “I do believe in this upfront we’ll expand our market share, and then as we move into next year, we’ll really expand our market share even further,” he said.
Shark Week swims to strong start
Discovery’s annual Shark Week swam to a strong start, with its first night on Sunday, July 26, averaging a 0.94 rating in the adult 25-54 demo, ranking as the highest-rated Night 1 since 2023.
That day, Discovery Channel ranked as the No. 1 cable network among adults 25-54 and men 25-54. The network also owned the top three ad-supported cable telecasts among adults 25-54 and men 25-54 with “Air Jaws: Red, White & Breach,” “Invasion of the Mega Sharks” and “K-Pop Shark Heroes.”
“CBS Evening News” hits slow July
Tony Dokoupil is poised to see his lowest monthly ratings since taking over “CBS Evening News” in January, with July — which is already sleepy for TV ratings — averaging 3.9 million viewers thus far.
The only thing saving grace for CBS News is that July 2025 slid even lower, meaning that “Evening News” saw a slight 2% rise in viewers year-over-year. The network also touted the program has grown the demo year-over-year for three straight months as it averaged nearly 500,000 demo viewers. CBS News isn’t alone, though: ABC News is facing its lowest rated primetime average in the 25-54 demo since 1992.
“The Bear” ratings drop
As the fifth and final season of “The Bear” dropped all eight episodes on June 25, the series generated 587 million viewing minutes during the week of June 22, landing as the No. 5 most-watched streaming original on Nielsen’s charts.
That’s down 36% from the viewership “The Bear” pulled in for its Season 4 debut last year, which saw the series tally 917 million viewing minutes during its debut week.
ICYMI:
- “I Will Find You” made its way into Netflix’s top 10 most popular TV list of all time
- Netflix’s “Swapped” also logged enough views to boost the title into the No. 9 spot on the all-time most popular list with 143.2 million views, moving up from the No. 10 spot
- “Live with Kelly and Mark” saw ratings success for its Fourth of July extravaganza as total viewership rose 5% year-over-year, TheWrap revealed exclusively
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