Inscape and Locality Partner to Provide Unified Linear and Streaming Ad Measurement for National and Local Audiences

In a strategic move designed to address the growing fragmentation of the television advertising landscape, data measurement firm Inscape and local video advertising provider Locality have entered into a formal partnership aimed at providing marketers with a unified view of linear and streaming performance. By integrating Inscape’s robust viewership data with Locality’s extensive local video inventory, the collaboration seeks to solve one of the most persistent challenges in modern media buying: the difficulty of calculating incremental reach across disparate broadcast and digital channels. This partnership marks a significant development in the $87 billion advertising industry, where the shift toward Connected TV (CTV) has often left advertisers struggling to reconcile traditional linear metrics with digital streaming data.

The Evolution of TV Measurement: Bridging the Gap

For decades, the television advertising industry relied on panel-based measurement systems, which were highly effective during the era of centralized, broadcast-only viewing. However, the rise of streaming services, Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms, and CTV has fractured the viewing experience. Consumers now bounce between traditional cable feeds, broadcast networks, and a plethora of streaming apps, often on the same device.

This fragmentation has created a "measurement gap." Advertisers frequently find themselves managing linear campaigns and streaming campaigns in silos, making it difficult to determine whether a streaming ad is reaching a unique household that has already been exposed to the same commercial on linear TV. The Inscape and Locality collaboration is built specifically to bridge this gap. By utilizing Inscape’s Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) data—which captures second-by-second viewing habits directly from millions of Vizio smart TVs—the partnership allows for a granular, census-level view of how households consume media, regardless of the distribution method.

Chronology of the Shift Toward Unified Data

The current partnership is the culmination of several years of evolution in the data measurement space.

• 2015–2018: The industry began to realize that traditional panels were undercounting streaming viewership. Companies like Vizio began scaling their ACR data operations to provide more accurate, real-time insights.
• 2019–2021: As the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the adoption of streaming services, the demand for "cross-platform" measurement reached a fever pitch. Advertisers demanded proof of return on investment (ROI) that accounted for the total household footprint.
• 2022: The industry saw the formation of the JIC (Joint Industry Committee), which sought to establish standards for alternative currencies in TV measurement, signaling a move away from the traditional Nielsen-only model.
• 2023–2024: Locality and other major ad-tech players focused on integrating third-party data providers to offer "local-first" measurement. This year, the focus shifted from broad national metrics to highly specific, market-level precision, leading to the current collaboration with Inscape.

Supporting Data and Market Context

The urgency of this partnership is underscored by current market dynamics. According to recent reports from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), ad spend on CTV and streaming has seen double-digit year-over-year growth, significantly outpacing traditional linear growth. However, linear TV still commands a massive share of total household viewing time, particularly in live sports and news.

Research from eMarketer suggests that while CTV viewership is projected to exceed 240 million Americans by 2025, the challenge remains in deduplication. Without a unified source of truth, advertisers risk over-saturating certain households with redundant ad exposures—a practice that wastes budget and can negatively impact brand perception—while missing segments entirely. By leveraging Inscape’s data, Locality can now offer advertisers a "deduplicated" reach report, effectively telling the marketer exactly how many unique homes saw their ad on linear TV, how many saw it on streaming, and how many saw it on both.

Perspectives from the Field

Keith Kazerman, President of Streaming at Locality, emphasized that the partnership is not just about raw numbers, but about actionable insights for regional and local brands. "Combining our access to premium local video at unduplicated scale with Inscape’s comprehensive local-level viewership data uniquely positions Locality to understand how ad campaigns perform across both linear and streaming distribution," Kazerman stated. "This partnership enhances our ability to showcase our unique reach to partners and provide insights into how consumers engage with our local streaming and broadcast inventory in their optimal markets."

From the data side, Ken Norcross, VP of Data Licensing and Strategy at Vizio/Inscape, underscored the technical advantage of the collaboration. "The solution this partnership brings to the $87 billion ad industry is access to unified data across locally targeted linear and streaming, driving operational and budgetary efficiencies," Norcross noted. He further highlighted that Inscape’s methodology focuses on the "cohesive" nature of modern TV consumption. "Our data is a single-source solution that focuses on the content and the commercials and the habits and behaviors within the TV viewing experience, cohesively. This partnership with Locality allows us to demonstrate a comprehensive view of how consumers are engaging with TV and to create a better experience overall for advertisers."

Strategic Implications for Marketers

The implications of this collaboration are twofold: budget optimization and campaign effectiveness.

For the average brand, the ability to see both linear and streaming data in a single dashboard means they can make real-time decisions about where to shift their dollars. If the data shows that a specific demographic in a specific local market is being reached effectively via linear broadcast, the advertiser can potentially shift surplus budget into streaming to capture the "light TV viewers" who are harder to reach through traditional channels.

Furthermore, this partnership supports the "local-first" advertising strategy. Historically, national brands have had an easier time measuring campaigns, but local advertisers—such as regional car dealerships, healthcare providers, or local retailers—have often operated in the dark. By providing this unified measurement at a market-by-market level, Inscape and Locality are lowering the barrier to entry for smaller advertisers who want to utilize the power of CTV without sacrificing the localized precision of cable and broadcast TV.

Challenges and Future Outlook

Despite the promise of this partnership, challenges remain. The TV measurement industry is currently in a state of "multi-currency" experimentation. Advertisers are navigating a complex landscape where multiple measurement providers offer slightly different methodologies. For a partnership like this to succeed long-term, it must achieve widespread adoption among media agencies and brand buyers who are accustomed to existing legacy systems.

Moreover, privacy remains a central concern. Both Inscape and Locality operate within the bounds of modern privacy regulations, utilizing aggregated, anonymized data to protect consumer identities. As regulations like the CCPA and various state-level privacy acts continue to evolve, the ability to provide robust measurement without relying on intrusive, individual-level tracking will be a key differentiator for both companies.

The move toward unified measurement is not merely a technical upgrade; it is a fundamental shift in how the industry values media. As the lines between "streaming" and "broadcast" continue to blur in the mind of the consumer, the data used to measure them must similarly converge. The collaboration between Inscape and Locality serves as a bellwether for the next stage of the advertising lifecycle, where the priority is no longer just "who is watching," but "how are they watching across every available screen."

As we look toward the remainder of the fiscal year, industry analysts expect to see more of these data-sharing agreements. The companies that can offer the most holistic, accurate, and easy-to-use measurement tools will likely dominate the market, as advertisers continue to demand higher levels of transparency and efficiency in their media buying strategies. By aligning their respective strengths in ACR data and local inventory, Inscape and Locality have positioned themselves as critical infrastructure providers in the new era of TV advertising.