ComScore, Adobe to Buddy Up on Digital TV Ratings

ComScore and Adobe are joining forces to try to figure out what television viewers are watching when it’s not regular TV.

A new partnership will combine the data and tools behind the two companies’ measurement of video for media and advertising clients that opt-in. Between digital measurement giant ComScore and Adobe, which helps run online streaming for many major television brands, the firms hope to better stitch together how viewers watch video across platforms, be it on traditional television, video on demand, a smartphone or an over-the-top streaming box.

It tackles a mystery dogging television companies and marketers, as consumers (especially young ones) have shifted to watching content after its broadcast through different technologies. Measurement hasn’t kept up with the lightning-fast changes in viewer habits, leading to gaps in viewership rathings. Everybody knows people are watching content online, but nobody has been able to connect all the dots.

If the partnership sounds familiar, TV-ratings giant Nielsen is developing its own answer to the problem with new measurements it calls Total Audience — with the help of Adobe.

Also Read: 'TV Everywhere' Finally Takes Off - and It Has a Long Way to Go (Exclusive)

Monday, the companies said that Adobe would pass along the video-viewing data it collects and certifies from devices, apps and video Web sites to ComScore, which would then enhance it with details like demographic information. In turn, Adobe will integrate ComScore data about audiences into a product designed for marketers and advertisers that helps them target ads and predict campaign performance, called Adobe Marketing Cloud.

In addition, Adobe said it would begin offering media companies more tools for streaming video. The company’s Adobe Primetime service, which already runs the TV Everywhere streaming for many of the biggest programmers, will add abilities like a Netflix-like recommendation feature for streaming apps and marketing tools to try to switch free ad-based viewers into subscribers.

Who's Who in the Apple Vs. FBI Feud (Photos)

Tim Cook

Apple's CEO sparked headlines by refusing to help the FBI unlock an iPhone linked to a deadly mass shooting, shining a spotlight on a long-simmering tension between protecting either digital privacy or public safety from attacks
Getty Images
Syed Farook and Tashfeen Malik

The couple killed 14 people in December's mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif. Using a warrant to searching a car linked to the husband, Farook, law enforcement discovered a passcode-protected iPhone. They want to bypass security blockers to peek into the phone's data for clues about associates or possible future attacks.
U.S. Government
James Comey

The FBI's director defended the agency's request that Apple help crack the shooter's iPhone, saying investigators wouldn't be able to look survivors in their eyes if the FBI didn't pursue the lead.
Getty Images
Eileen M. Decker

The U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Decker is the top Justice Department official fighting on behalf of the FBI in court. Decker said the court's order would help investigators uncover the motives behind the attack. “We have made a solemn commitment to the victims and their families that we will leave no stone unturned," she said.
Department of Justice
Donald Trump

The Republican presidental candidate seized on the standoff pitting Apple against national security interests, calling for a boycott of the company until it helps unlock the phone.
Getty Images
Edward Snowden

The former intelligence contractor, who leaked documents in 2013 that exposed warrantless government surveillance, called the face-off "the most important tech case in a decade" and criticized the FBI for creating a world where Apple protects citizens' rights, rather than the other way around.
Praxis Films
Sundar Pichai

Google's CEO, who is instrumental in the world's other major smartphone operating system besides Apple's, was the first major figure in Silicon Valley to express support for Cook. He said requiring companies to enable hacking of customer devices and data "could be a troubling precedent."
Getty Images
Mark Zuckerberg

The CEO of Facebook, the world's biggest social network, said his company was “sympathetic” to Apple. “We believe in encryption,” he said.
Getty Images
John McAfee

The anti-virus software businessman, who is known for his own tangles with law enforcement, said he and his team of hackers would break into Farook's iPhone for the FBI at no charge, to eliminate the need for Apple to develop another way in. "I would eat my shoe... if we could not break the encryption on the San Bernardino phone," he said.

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Apple and the U.S. government are facing off over a killer terrorist’s locked iPhone. Here are the main figures in the case

Tim Cook

Apple's CEO sparked headlines by refusing to help the FBI unlock an iPhone linked to a deadly mass shooting, shining a spotlight on a long-simmering tension between protecting either digital privacy or public safety from attacks

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Who's Who in the Apple Vs. FBI Feud (Photos)

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