Comscore Announces Beta Release of Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, Providing a Unified View of Web, Smartphone and Tablet Audiences

Media Metrix Multi-Platform is a Revolutionary Digital Audience Measurement and Media Planning Product that Accurately Accounts for Today’s Fragmented Media Environment

New Rankings, New Metrics, New View of the Digital World

RESTON, VA, November 29, 2012 – Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the U.S. Beta release of Media Metrix® Multi-Platform, the next generation of digital audience measurement and media planning. Building on Media Metrix, Mobile Metrix and Video Metrix from Comscore’s Audience Analytics suite, this revolutionary product offers unduplicated accounting of audience size and demographics that reflects today’s multi-platform digital media environment, which includes websites, apps and video content accessed from multiple devices.

“We are excited to introduce our Beta version of Media Metrix Multi-Platform, the next generation in digital audience measurement offering a unified 360-degree view of digital consumer behavior across platforms and content types,” said Jeff Hackett, executive vice president of Comscore. “With smartphones and tablets accounting for a rapidly expanding share of digital media consumption, Comscore recognized the need to evolve our industry-leading audience measurement product to better represent this new paradigm. By developing proprietary methods to account for multi-platform audience overlap, we have designed a truly unique and innovative solution.”

Media Metrix Multi-Platform is expected to remain in Beta over the next several months as the product undergoes a thorough data review and validation with Comscore clients. All publicly reported data included in this initial report are illustrative and should not be interpreted as official Comscore rankings.

A New View of the Digital World

Multi-platform digital audience measurement has significant implications for how the digital world is seen and understood. “As an active investor in mobile and web businesses, I have been dying for an accurate consolidated view of web, mobile web, iOS, and Android audience data. Comscore has delivered exactly what I've been seeking for the U.S. audience and I am looking forward to seeing them tackle the global audience next,” said Fred Wilson, Managing Partner of Union Square Ventures.

The most notable change from traditional Media Metrix rankings are the overall audience increases for media properties with a measurable mobile presence; in some cases, these increases are substantial. Specifically, the Media Metrix Multi Platform view shows 10 properties reaching 100 million unique visitors compared to six in a non-multi-platform view, 28 properties reaching 50 million (vs. 19), 77 properties reaching 25 million (vs. 51), 223 reaching 10 million (vs. 171) and 410 reaching 5 million (vs. 334)

Media Metrix Multi-Platform Beta vs. Media Metrix: Audience Threshold Comparison
September 2012
Total U.S. (Age 18+ on iOS, Android and RIM platforms for Mobile)
Source: Media Metrix Multi-Platform
Audience Size
(Unique Visitors / Viewers)
# of Properties with Specified Audience Size
Media Metrix Media Metrix
Multi-Platform
100 Million 6 10
50 Million 19 28
25 Million 51 77
10 Million 171 223
5 Million 334 410

Another visible way of reflecting this change is through the ranking of the top media properties. Properties that are particularly mobile-centric, or at least have a strong mobile extension of their brands, may realize strong increases in total audience size and rankings under Media Metrix Multi-Platform reporting.

Below is a comparison of the top 30 media properties in September 2012 according to the new Media Metrix Multi-Platform Beta rankings compared to the existing Media Metrix ranking of top web properties. These properties reached an average incremental audience of 26 percent compared to their desktop computer-only audience. Other key findings include:

  • Google Sites ranked #1 was the only property to surpass 100 million unique visitors across both desktop and mobile channels.
  • Facebook moved up one spot to #3 in the multi-platform rankings, and ranked as the top property in terms of total engagement in the mobile channel.
  • Amazon, eBay and Walmart each reached at least 20 percent more visitors across platforms than via desktop alone.
  • The most mobile-centric property in the ranking, Pandora, had an incremental reach of 164 percent and captured the #23 ranking, a full 38 positions higher than in the standard Media Metrix ranking.
  • Twitter reached an incremental mobile audience of 54 percent, second only to Pandora on this list.
  • ESPN had the second biggest jump in the rankings, ascending 4 positions to #19, with an incremental mobile audience of 36 percent.
Media Metrix Multi-Platform Top 30 Properties
September 2012
Total U.S. (Age 18+ on iOS, Android and RIM platforms for Mobile)
Source: Media Metrix Multi-Platform
      Unique Visitors/Viewers (000)
Media Metrix Multi-Platform Rank Media Metrix Rank   Total Digital Population Desktop Mobile
        Total Internet : Total Audience  234,953 219,970 126,890
1 1     Google Sites 214,806 189,588 109,099
2 3     Yahoo! Sites 189,272 164,404 94,304
3 4     Facebook.com 179,411 151,122 91,502
4 2     Microsoft Sites 170,565 168,022 41,837
5 5     AOL, Inc. 135,860 120,936 52,400
6 6     Amazon Sites 134,522 111,170 61,844
7 7     Wikimedia Foundation Sites 103,724 88,441 39,444
8 8     Glam Media 102,288 86,884 39,749
9 10     Apple Inc. 102,065 79,689 47,567
10 9     CBS Interactive 100,698 86,998 36,662
11 11     Turner Digital 98,711 84,649 36,996
12 12     Ask Network 91,011 78,023 31,618
13 14     eBay 90,289 73,805 37,537
14 13     Demand Media 89,894 78,214 30,003
15 15     New York Times Digital 88,284 71,671 36,401
16 18     Comcast NBCUniversal 83,105 70,031 31,135
17 17     Federated Media Publishing 81,923 68,846 30,071
18 16     Viacom Digital 79,410 71,610 20,313
19 23     ESPN 65,486 47,345 31,818
20 24     Weather Channel, The 63,268 46,930 28,878
21 20     Gannett Sites 61,514 49,499 24,140
22 22     Answers.com Sites 60,228 48,828 22,760
23 61     Pandora.com 59,877 22,657 48,641
24 19     VEVO 57,716 55,033 4,966
25 20     craigslist, inc. 57,442 49,601 16,657
26 27     Twitter.com 56,736 36,840 30,646
27 34     Disney Online 51,938 44,508 14,470
28 25     Wal-Mart 51,469 41,515 18,643
29 30     Yelp.com 47,920 33,385 23,021
30 26     Linkedin 47,064 39,600 13,639

*Note: Desktop includes audience reached via video and will therefore differ from standard Media Metrix rankings; Mobile includes smartphone and tablet platforms

Methodology & Metrics

Comscore’s multi-platform measurement relies on its proprietary Unified Digital Measurement™ (UDM) methodology, which combines panel and census-based approaches, to deliver best-in-class estimates of digital audiences and consumption. In order to provide accurate unduplicated audience size estimates across digital platforms, Comscore developed a proprietary method that leverages its census web site network to understand audience overlap across different media channels – the first offering of its kind to utilize such an approach.

This unified representation of disparate media channels also requires a modified view of certain standard reporting metrics. While “unique visitor”-based metrics remain central to Media Metrix Multi-Platform, measures of engagement such as page views must be reconsidered. This means that duration-based metrics (i.e. minutes) become the preferred engagement metrics because they are consistent across media; however, Comscore is also introducing the new “views” metric to account for content-specific engagements, such as the web-based page view, video view or app start.

Tag Your Digital Content Today!

Media Metrix Multi-Platform Beta is available to U.S. clients immediately, and anticipated for introduction to the UK market in early 2013. Other international markets will follow thereafter. Publishers, brands, and media companies who want to ensure that all their digital platforms and audiences are fully reflected in Media Metrix® Multi-Platform are strongly encouraged to begin tagging their digital assets with Comscore today at the Comscore Direct website.

Many web sites are already familiar with the process from tagging their traditional web content using Comscore’s UDM census tag. The Comscore tag has recently been updated to enable advanced measurement of sites and apps in a fixed web or mobile environment, inclusive of both iOS and Android platforms. With an increasing amount of media consumption shifting to smartphones and tablets, now is the time to make sure that all of your digital assets are accounted for:

  • Traditional web pages
  • Mobile-optimized web pages
  • Mobile apps
  • Tablet apps
  • Video content

If you have any questions about implementing these additional tags, please feel free to reach out to your Comscore account representative.

About Comscore
Comscore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. For more information, please visit www.Comscore.com.

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, including, but not limited to, expectations regarding the impact and benefits to Comscore from the Media Metrix family of products, financial or otherwise. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially, including, but not limited to: the features and characteristics of the products, the rate of development of the digital marketing intelligence, Internet advertising and e-Commerce markets; the growth of the Internet as a medium for commerce, content, advertising and communications; and the acceptance of new products and methodologies by the industry, including existing and prospective clients.

For a detailed discussion of these and other risk factors, please refer to Comscore's most recent respective Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Annual Reports on Form 10-K and from time to time other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC"), which are available on the SEC's Web site (  http://www.sec.gov).

Stockholders of Comscore are cautioned not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date such statements are made. Comscore does not undertake any obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements to reflect events, circumstances or new information after the date of this press release, or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Press
Bill Daddi
Daddi Brand Communications
646-370-1341
press@comscore.com

Multi-Platform Content Measurement

Comscore Media Metrix® Multi-Platform provides an unduplicated view of total audience behavior across desktops, smartphones and tablets.

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