• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, April 27, 2015

A consortium of big media companies has joined forced with online measurement giant comScore to produce cross-media measurement techniques to track their combined audience across different channels and devices. This week comScore revealed the first installment of data from the multiplatform measurement initiative.

The wide-ranging syndicated measurement product aims to capture unduplicated reach for audience exposure to video, audio, as well as static and interactive content and ads across screens, according to Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement CEO and managing director Jane Clarke, including delivery across both linear and time-shifted TV, radio, computers, smartphones, and tablets. 

The consortium counts a number of big broadcast and cable TV nets as members, including CBS Corp., Disney ABC Television Group, ESPN, Fox Networks, NBC Universal, Univision and Viacom. All these companies have also invested heavily in mobile content distribution, hoping to monetize their offerings through some combination of mobile ads, paid and subscription apps, casual gaming, and e-commerce.

The CIMM consortium formed in 2012 and the project gained momentum as different companies championed it at different times --  most notably ESPN, which pioneered cross-channel measurement in the sports category back in 2013.

CBS Corp. chief research officers and CBS Vision President David Poltrack noted that the new cross-channel measurements go beyond broadcast TV: “Of particular importance is the inclusion of radio, a powerful, proven and pervasive medium that effectively builds reach on top of television and digital campaigns, in the cross-platform measurement process."

Earlier this year, ad colossus WPP acquired a “substantial” stake in comScore, with the goal of developing more cross-media audience and campaign measurement offerings.