TouchTunes is DOOH's big dog: Nielsen research

November 5, 2010 by Dave Haynes

A release earlier this week got plenty of coverage on how Premier Retail Networks “shines” in the latest Nielsen Fourth Screen Network Audience Report.

Well, good for PRN. But what seems to have been missed in coverage is that PRN, as I thought, is just one of several companies in the report, that use Nielsen to develop audience metrics that help compare DOOH with the reach of broadcast TV and other mediums.

These are the results from Q2 2010 …

Venue                           Network               2Q 2010 (P18+)
Bars & Restaurants   AMI                            39,218,884
Bars & Restaurants   TargetCast                52,308,475
Bars & Restaurants   TouchTunes             102,072,577
Gas Stations                Outcast/PumpTop 18,537,707
Health Clubs               Health Club Media Network    15,130,603
Health Clubs               RMG Fitness             15,857,875
Health Clubs               Zoom Fitness           33,210,401
Hotels                            The Hotel Networks 22,667,844
Restaurants                 indoorDIRECT         14,596,469
Retail                              Best Buy                     22,961,442
Retail                              GameStop TV           17,356,880
Retail                              PRN HDTV                 61,535,226
Stadiums                       Access 360-AMNTV 19,549,174
TOTAL                                                                      435,003,557

So at the start of this summer, the truly big dog in the DOOH space is probably not a company many people would have fingered as #1 – Montreal-based TouchTunes.

The interactive digital jukebox company has a monthly audience of 102 million and by Nielsen’s measure leads the digital out of home category with the largest gross minute exposure delivery of all reported networks. TouchTunes also tops audience rankings in Male 18-34, Male 18-49, Female 18-34 and Female 18-49.

Interestingly, two of the biggest and most profitable players in the DOOH sector – TouchTunes and Zoom Media – are based in Montreal (though both have extensive US offices and staff in New York and elsewhere).

The Q3 and particularly Q4 results might look a little different, however, as San Francisco-based RMG Networks has been very active in partnerships and M&A activity (the Harrah’s deal this week and another deal closing soon, I hear).

Nielsen describes its report like this:

Nielsen’s “Fourth Screen Network Audience Report” grows out of the rapid proliferation of video networks in non-traditional spots such as movie theaters, bars and restaurants, gas stations, health clubs, and other place-based venues. This is the first time that any measurement company has provided a comprehensive, standardized audience reporting that allows advertisers to easily compare data from these networks with measurements from the other three screens: TV, Internet, and Mobile.

“For the first time, ad buyers and sellers have a single source to evaluate digital place-based advertising networks in reaching key age and sex demographics, and compare these to other video sources such as TV,” said Terrie Brennan, SVP for New Business Development at Nielsen. “This syndicated report provides the insight necessary to understand the impact of advertising on these networks with television and Internet as well as other cross-media campaigns.”

Good luck finding the latest report online. Maybe I’m just silly, but with networks (probably) paying a bundle to get measured, they’d want the numbers broadly distributed?


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