Roku and UM today announced an exclusive measurement partnership to provide the IPG Mediabrands agency with linear TV viewership data for over 35 diverse-owned media networks in the hopes it will accelerate advertiser investment.

Because of limitations in panel-based measurement, such as panel size and the cost for networks to implement it, small and young programmers have had limited access to traditional ratings used in striking deals with advertisers. Roku will utilize its Automated Content Recognition technology, which can identify what a household is watching over antenna, cable or satellite on a Roku device, to share audience metrics with UM and its sister agencies.
The partnership will hopefully “change the conversation from, ‘Are we doing [equity investments] because of moral reasons?’ to, ‘We are doing it because we actually can drive business,’” said Deidre Smalls-Landau, head of business equity at IPG Mediabrands.

Read more on Ad Age.