Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement launches.

In an effort to promote innovation and explore new, high quality ways to measure audiences across traditional and new media, a group of leading US television content providers, media agencies and advertisers are joining together in an historic initiative to create the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM).

Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive, WPP, holding company for GroupM: “Given the recent changes in media consumption habits, it is critical for the various constituencies of our industry to agree on the priorities for the next generation of media measurement systems. Once we have agreed on these priorities, we can identify the most promising opportunities and initiatives and concentrate our future investments on the most effective systems that meet our objectives in this new media environment.”

Signaling the critical importance within the industry for such an organization, CIMM is being announced today by the following executives from all 14 founding member companies:

Jeff Bewkes, Chairman and CEO, Time Warner

George Bodenheimer, President of ESPN and ABC Sports, and Co-Chair, Disney Media Networks

Nick Brien, President & CEO, Interpublic Group’s Mediabrands

Chase Carey, Deputy Chairman, President and COO, News Corporation

Philippe Dauman, President and Chief Executive Officer, Viacom

Laura Desmond, CEO, Starcom MediaVest Group Worldwide

Dina Howell, Vice President, Global Media & Brand Operations, The
Procter & Gamble Company

Laura Klauberg, Senior Vice President, Global Media, Unilever

Esther Lee, Senior Vice President, Brand Marketing and Advertising,
AT&T

Sir Martin Sorrell, Group Chief Executive, WPP, holding company for GroupM

Anne Sweeney, President, Disney-ABC Television Group and co-chair, Disney Media Networks

Nancy Tellem, President, CBS Paramount Network Television Entertainment
Group

Page Thompson, CEO, North America, Omnicom Media Group

David M. Zaslav, President and CEO, Discovery Communications

Jeff Zucker, President and CEO, NBC Universal

CIMM will work to explore and identify new methodologies and approaches to audience measurement. The group will initiate, fund and evaluate a series of pilot studies with independent measurement companies focusing on two key areas: the current and future potential of television measurement through set-top-box data, and new methods for cross-platform media measurement. CIMM will publish all research findings to its members and make them publicly available as well.

CIMM will be funded by the group’s founding participants, who will hire an independent managing director to oversee day-to-day operations. Any US television content providers, buying agencies or advertisers that are interested in joining CIMM should contact NBC Universal Research President Alan Wurtzel, al**********@****ni.com, for additional information.