Nielsen Switches CEOs as Rivals Stir Up Media Measurement Market

One down, and more to come.

Suits is on its way to breaking another Nielsen streaming record.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The Media Rating Council has granted accreditation to audience-measurement technology backed by iSpot, one of a handful of start-up companies that have been vying for months to compete more directly with Nielsen. The MRC, an independent industry organization that scrutinizes various measurement methodologies, has accredited iSpot technology that identifies, verifies and tracks national TV ad occurrences across 187 linear and broadcast networks. The system was first introduced in 2012.

Taylor Swift was in attendance at Arrowhead today to see rumored new beau Travis Kelce and his Kansas City Chiefs beat up on the hapless Chicago Bears.

Negotiations between the WGA and studios CEOs on a deal to end the nearly five-month long writers’ strike look within sight.

The Writers Guild brass and studios CEOs were working tonight to close a deal to end the scribes’ strike , but it seems they aren’t quite there yet.

WGA picket lines on the West Coast swelled Friday in response to the call from guild leaders for a strong turnout on the streets as labor and management negotiators gathered for a third consecutive day of talks aimed at ending the more than four-month-long strike. In Hollywood, Netflix and Paramount saw big crowds of WGA and SAG-AFTRA pickets gathered by 9 a.m. The past week has been chock full of rumors spread by social media and private online and text channels that a deal is in the offing.

Disney+ managed to break through the streaming noise with another title on Nielsen’s charts for the week of August 21 to August 27.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor The nation’s TV networks are picking their own measurement team. The U.S. Joint Industry Committee, a group backed by Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount, TelevisaUnivision, and Warner Bros.

Mortal Kombat 1 on the Nintendo Switch has been subject to severe criticism from fans for its diminished fidelity.Mortal Kombat 1 released for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo Switch today (September 19), however, the latter version has launched without the entirety of Invasions.A new game mode that features famous locations from previous entries in Mortal Kombat in a mix of tabletop and role-playing game mechanics, this also allows player to generate seasonal currency for the Kollector.Moreover, the visuals of the Nintendo Switch version are a point of contention in comparison to the game’s price. Though Mortal Kombat 1 on the Nintendo Switch is slightly cheaper than the other versions in the United Kingdom, those in the United States must shell out $69.99 for all versions of the game.Owing to the differences between the specifications of these platforms, it would never have been possible to replicate the graphics on the PS5 on the Nintendo Switch, for example.

Spiritbox has revealed their own custom Nintendo Switch controller that will be “available this holiday season”, themed on their debut album ‘Eternal Blue’.The metal band celebrated two years since ‘Eternal Blue’ in a post to X (previously Twitter) and the response from fans on the custom controller has been one of delight and surprise. Check it out below:Today feels like a fun day to let you see a project we have been working on with @Hyperkin that will be available this holiday season.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Charades has closed multiple deals on “There’s Something in the Barn,” Magnus Martens’s (“Fear the Walking Dead”) comedy horror movie from “Dead Snow” producers at 74 Entertainment and XYZ Films. The English-language movie is headlined by Martin Starr (“Freaks and Geeks,” “Spider Man”), Amrita Acharia (“Game of Thrones”) and Jeppe Beck Laursen (“The Last Kingdom”).

Ink (★★★☆☆), co-produced by Round House and Olney, combines a talented cast with titillating text for a thorough chronicle of Rupert Murdoch’s typically rude 1969 takeover of British tabloid The Sun.Cody Nickell, portraying the paper’s exacting editor Larry Lamb, supplies the steady, galvanizing force that drives the story of how Lamb, handpicked by Australian media baron Murdoch (Andrew Rein), assembled a ragtag squad of Fleet Street vets who would carry out Rupe’s directive to create a paper for the people. Its first act structured as a countdown to The Sun‘s unlikely launch, the production gathers steam as Lamb gathers his A-team.Yet, there’s one workhorse in this production who often upstages D.C.

Can you say, “Netflix effect”?

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor While Madison Avenue seems focused on shiny new technologies, iHeartMedia is encouraging advertisers to get back to basics. Research conducted by Morning Consult and Advertiser Perceptions on behalf of the audio-media giant and podcaster Pushkin Media found a growing disparity between what marketers think top consumer priorities are and the things to which consumers are actually gravitating.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor In a growing market for technology that measures TV audiences, sometimes it helps to extend your yardstick iSpot.tv, one of a number of ad-tech upstarts vying to challenge Nielsen in the tabulation of media viewership, is acquiring 605, a company that specializes in assigning “attribution,” or tracing how exposure to a specific commercial affects an actual sale. The company being acquired, 605, was launched in part by Kristin Dolan, currently the CEO of AMC Networks. Dolan Family Ventures, an entity that makes strategic investments on behalf of Dolan and her husband, James Dolan, who is also the lead of the family that controls AMC and sibling company MSG Networks, will retain a minority stake in iSpot as part of the deal.

Ladbible Execs Launch Digital Studio

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Nielsen is putting a new media yardstick out of arm’s reach, for the time being. Nielsen backed off a plan to incorporate first-party data from Amazon in its study of the audience for the company’s streamcast of “Thursday Night Football.” a move that was opposed by TV networks, putting to rest — at least for the moment — the idea that the measurement giant might utilize inputs from the companies it examines in its national viewership methodology.

Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building leapt onto Nielsen’s streaming charts for the week of August 7 to August 13.

Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Gambling is often full of risk, but it may also be the surest bet stressed executives in the frenzied media business these days can make. Disney earlier this month became the latest of the traditional media conglomerates to hook upwith purveyors of sports wagering. Under terms of a deal struck with Penn Entertainment, Disney’s ESPN stands to receive $2 billion in cash and warrants over10 years from the gambling purveyor.