I knew my days at FX were numbered when the head of HR took my side when my boss and I had a heated dispute over the accuracy of digital data that reached its peak when he exploded in rage through the paper thin walls of our mediocre new digs to a decibel level few of my colleagues had ever heard before. He was flabbergasted that the story he had been getting from his then neophyte director of digital content that equated clickthroughs to viewership was being disproven by data we were receiving from Comscore. Comscore had the audacity to filter out redirects and bot interactions, which our internal tracking was not sophisticated enough to do. This was a most inconvenient truth for someone who had recently lectured the Hollywood Radio and Television Society that we were going to be as transformational with online content as we had been with linear. And I took the full brunt of his reluctance to want to know what was actually happening.
Our usually intimidating HR head was sympathetic and in one of the few occasions where I witnessed humbleness he grudingly apologized for his outburst. Through clenched teeth, may I add.
Flash forward two decades later: Both he and the now senior vice president of digital are still employed and thriving, multimillionaires many times over. And I’m here musing about the meaningless of being accurate with y’all even after the statute of limitations has long expired.
That’s why I was neither surprised nor having the capacity to even be concerned by the story that THE VERGE’s Emma Roth dropped on Monday:
YouTube will soon count a view as soon as a video starts to play, lining up with the system used by Instagram, TikTok, and its Shorts videos. The update will go into effect on August 24th, “which means creators will likely see their total view counts increase faster moving forward,” the platform says. Instagram and TikTok similarly add a view to a video when it starts to play or replay, while X counts a view when a user watches a video for at least two seconds. YouTube applied Instagram and TikTok’s view-counting method to Shorts last year.
So it appears YT is just trying to keep pace with the cooler kids–those that hyperfocus on the scoreboard rather than the game. The kind of metrics that support the perception of success and the FOMO that drives the desire to engage, like and subscribe. The KPIs that increase valuations for creators and their digital footprints that collectively now dwarf the legacy businesses they likely never discovered in the first place.
But because advertisers and sponsors still like to drive a bargain, the platform isn’t fully disembracing the concept of standards, as Roth continued:
YouTube says it’s going to keep its original view-counting method under an “engaged views” metric in its Analytics dashboard. As my colleague David Pierce notes, it’s not entirely clear how YouTube counted views before this, but “it’s generally accepted wisdom that you have to watch 30 seconds of a standard YouTube video for it to count.”…”Historically, we’ve used multiple view counting systems across different formats,” YouTube says in its update. “However, we’ve heard that creators want to eliminate this metric confusion and accurately understand their true exposure… We hope that having metric parity across all formats gives creators a clearer picture of their overall exposure.”
It’s quite similar to the stand and the enthusiastic update that THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER’s aptly named Rick Porter shared with his readers yesterday morning that recapped a series of announcements that had already trickled out from less mainstream sites throughout the summer:
Nielsen will incorporate a slate of updates and “enhancements” to its TV ratings product for the 2026-27 season, including a change to its monthly snapshot of viewing across various platforms that sparked a small controversy earlier this year.
That change — a different way of measuring the total number of TV users in the United States — along with updates to co-viewing measurement, more accurate weighting of the big data and panel components in TV ratings and other tweaks are set to be incorporated into Nielsen’s product starting Sept. 1, after passing muster with oversight body the Media Rating Council. Data for clients and publicly released numbers aren’t likely to change significantly, but Nielsen is touting a product that will be more accurate.
With a bevy of other talking points to support his giddiness, the conpany’s Wall Street-friendly head took the chance to telegraph the strong possibility that the upticks we saw throughout the about-to-conclude 2025-26 season–especially in live sports–was poised to not only continue but perhaps to grow even further:
“We are relentless in our pursuit of delivering the most accurate measurement possible for our media and advertising clients,” Nielsen CEO Karthik Rao said in a statement. “We’ve spent months working hand in hand with them and industry experts to make Big Data + Panel even more accurate.”
And there are few invested parties that should be happier about all of that than Rao and his Nielsen comrades. The bigger the numbers that his paying clients can generate means that much higher of a license fee he can charge them for the privilege of using them to its investors and board members, let alone its potential business partners. Which leaves a lot less to invest in other companies’ socrecards. Most notably, Comscore’s.
Hence why we also saw this note from THE DESK.net’s ever-attentive Matthew Keys last week:
Comscore has launched a broad restructuring and business realignment plan that will include cost reductions, changes to its operating model and new investment priorities intended to support long-term growth. This week, the media measurement company said its new business plan, called ROI Strategy, is designed to lower and create more flexibility in its cost base, simplify how Comscore operates internally and externally, sharpen accountability and focus resources on products and opportunities that can create durable long-term value…Comscore further said it will simplify legacy business costs and underused product features, optimize pricing and contract structures and shift product development toward reusable, scalable solutions instead of bespoke customizations.
Translated: I’ve seen way more “open to work” banners and “it’s not you it’s them” expressions of support on my timeline this week that usual for the many experienced and savvy researchers, marketers and client service experts who claim to have been blindsided by this step. Bigger numbers can only take you so far if your street cred isn’t top-of-card.
I do have faith that many of them–particularly those that fit the more desirable demographics of insurgents newly empowered to fight the good fight–will wind up taking their talents elsewhere. They did build up solid relationships and were able to co-exist with Nielsen even if their company couldn’t keep up their end of the bargain. I, for one, would welcome just about any of them into my camp.
Just a word of sage advice from a seasoned veteran: When your new boss asks you a question, be careful how honestly you choose to answer it. They may not necessarily want the truth. Be especially wary if you notice any similarities to this guy:
Until next time…