Item 1. Business
ITEM 1. BUSINESS
Unless the context requires otherwise, references in this 10-K to "Comscore," "we," "us," the "Company" and "our" refer to comScore, Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries. We have registered trademarks around the globe, including Unified Digital Measurement®, UDM®, vCE®, Metrix®, Essentials®, Box Office Essentials®, OnDemand Essentials®, and TV Essentials®. This 10-K also contains additional trademarks and trade names of our company and our subsidiaries. We file and maintain trademark protection for our products and services. All trademarks and trade names appearing in this 10-K are the property of their respective holders.
Overview
We are a global information and analytics company that measures advertising, content, and the consumer audiences of each, across media platforms. We create our products using a global data platform that combines information on digital platforms (connected (Smart) televisions, mobile devices, tablets and computers), television ("TV"), direct to consumer applications, and movie screens with demographics and other descriptive information. We have developed proprietary data science that enables measurement of person-level and household-level audiences, removing duplicated viewing across devices and over time. This combination of data and methods enables a common standard for buyers and sellers to transact on advertising. This helps companies across the media ecosystem better understand and monetize their audiences and develop marketing plans, content and products to more efficiently and effectively reach those audiences. Our ability to unify behavioral and other descriptive data enables us to provide audience ratings, advertising verification, and granular consumer segments that describe hundreds of millions of consumers. Our customers include digital publishers, television networks, movie studios, content owners, brand advertisers, agencies and technology providers.
The information we analyze crosses geographies, types of content and activities, including websites, mobile and over the top ("OTT") applications ("apps"), video games, television and movie programming, electronic commerce ("e-commerce") and advertising.
We are a Delaware corporation headquartered in Reston, Virginia with principal offices located at 11950 Democracy Drive, Suite 600, Reston, VA 20190. Our telephone number is 703-438-2000.
Recent Key Developments
Leadership Changes
On July 5, 2022, our Board of Directors (the "Board") appointed Jonathan Carpenter as our Chief Executive Officer, effective July 6, 2022. In connection with Mr. Carpenter's appointment, William Livek retired as our Chief Executive Officer. Also on July 5, 2022, the Board appointed Mary Margaret Curry as our Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, effective July 6, 2022. Ms. Curry continues to serve as our principal accounting officer.
On August 22, 2022, our Board appointed Greg Dale as Chief Operating Officer and David Algranati as Chief Innovation Officer of the Company, effective August 23, 2022. We also announced that our Chief Commercial Officer, Chris Wilson, would depart the Company effective October 1, 2022.
Organizational Restructuring
On September 29, 2022, we communicated a workforce reduction as part of our broader efforts to improve cost efficiency and better align our operating structure and resources with strategic priorities (collectively, the "Restructuring Plan"). In addition to employee terminations, the Restructuring Plan is expected to include the reallocation of commercial and product development resources; reinvestment in and modernization of key technology platforms; consolidation of data storage and processing activities to reduce our data center footprint; and reduction of other operating expenses, including software and facility costs. We may also determine to exit certain activities in certain geographic regions in order to more effectively align resources with business priorities.
Amendment to Revolving Credit Agreement
On February 25, 2022, we entered into an amendment to our senior secured revolving credit agreement (the "Revolving Credit Agreement") to expand our aggregate borrowing capacity from $25.0 million to $40.0 million. The 2022 amendment also replaced the Eurodollar Rate with a SOFR-based interest rate and modified the Applicable Rate definition in the Revolving Credit Agreement to increase the Applicable Rate payable on SOFR-based loans to 2.50%. Finally, the amendment modified certain financial covenants under the Revolving Credit Agreement.
On February 24, 2023, we entered into an additional amendment to the Revolving Credit Agreement that further modified our financial covenants, introduced a minimum liquidity covenant, and increased the Applicable Rate payable on SOFR-based loans to 3.50%. Refer to Footnote 16 , Subsequent Events, of the Notes to the Consolidated Financial Statements for additional information about the 2023 amendment.
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Macroeconomic Factors
During 2020 and 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic and related government mandates and restrictions had a significant impact on the media, advertising and entertainment industries in which we operate. The pandemic also had an impact on our business, including with respect to the execution of new and renewal contracts, the impact of closed movie theaters on our customers, customer payment delays and requests to modify contractual payment terms. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, we took actions in 2020 and 2021 to mitigate the liquidity impact, including freezing hiring, exiting non-critical consultants and contractors, terminating or negotiating reductions in vendor agreements and leases, and reducing certain travel, marketing, recruiting and other corporate activities. Although we cannot quantify the impact that the pandemic may have on our business in the future, we saw positive recovery in 2022, including the reopening of theaters in most markets worldwide. At the same time, however, macroeconomic factors such as inflation, rising interest rates, and supply chain disruptions caused some advertisers to reduce or delay advertising expenditures in the second half of 2022. These declines had a direct impact on demand for our products, particularly those for which we recognize revenue based on impressions used. We expect that softness in the advertising market will continue to affect our business in 2023.
Background and Market
We were founded in 1999 on the belief that digital technology would transform the interactions between people, media and brands in ways that would generate substantial demand for data and analytics about that interaction. The growing adoption of digital technologies also allowed measurement of the behavior of consumers' online activities. Based on this vision, we built a global opt-in panel that provided insight into online activities. Over the years we have enhanced our product offerings by uniting panel data with census-level data from website tags and other sources, and we expanded our presence in various markets. We also have access to millions of television and video on demand ("VOD") screens and the ability to measure box office results from movie screens across the world.
In December 2021, we acquired Shareablee, Inc. ("Shareablee"), allowing us to expand our Media Metrix® and Video Metrix® currencies to include Shareablee's social media engagement and video insights, in order to bridge the industry gap of traditional digital and social measurement services.
Our Approach to Media Measurement
Our approach to measuring media consumption addresses the ubiquitous nature of media content and the fragmentation caused by the variety of platforms and technologies used to access such content. Advertising exposure and effectiveness is another rapidly changing and fragmented area where we apply scale for validation and campaign measurement across devices, platforms and ecosystem technology providers. We believe this fragmentation presents major challenges to using legacy measurement systems that are comprised of relatively small panels of cooperating consumers or limited to specific media platforms. Our products and services are built on measurement and analytic capabilities comprised of broad-based data collection, proprietary databases, internally developed software and a computational infrastructure to measure, analyze and report on digital, television and movie activity at the level of granularity that we believe the media and advertising industries need.
Data Collection
The following collection methods illustrate our extensive data sourcing:
• We collect data from proprietary consumer panels that measure the use of computers, tablets and smartphones that access the internet. These panelists have agreed to install our passive metering software on their devices, home network or both.
• Comscore's Digital Census Data is our census digital network whereby content publishers share information with us. That sharing includes direct integrations with the publishers, as well as publishers' implementation of our software code (referred to as "tagging") on their websites, in mobile applications and video players to provide us usage information.
• We license certain demographic and behavioral mobile and panel data from third-party data providers.
• We obtain television viewership information from satellite, telecommunications, connected (Smart) TV and cable operators covering millions of television and VOD screens.
• We measure gross receipts and attendance information from movie screens across the world.
• We integrate our digital and television viewership information with other third-party datasets that include consumer demographic characteristics, attitudes, lifestyles and purchase behavior.
• We integrate many of our services with ad serving platforms.
• We utilize knowledgeable in-house industry analysts that span verticals such as pharmaceuticals, media, finance, consumer packaged goods and political information to add value to our data.
• We have created an opt-in Total Home Panel, which can capture data that runs through a home's internet connection. This expands our intelligence to include such activity as game console and Internet of Things ("IOT") device usage.
• We collect content and advertising data from major social platforms for measurement, audience, and lift analysis.
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Data Science and Management
The ability to integrate, manage and transform massive amounts of data is core to our company. We continue to invest in technologies to enable large-scale measurement with protection of consumer privacy and attractive economics. Our systems contain multiple redundancies and advanced distributed processing technologies. We have created innovations such as:
• Our United Digital Measurement ® ("UDM") methodology, which allows us to combine person-centric panel data with website server data. We believe this gives our customers greater accuracy, granularity and relevance in audience measurement.
• Our TV measurement systems, underpinned by multiple patents, which enable us to provide a consistent measurement of TV audience sizes across national, local, and addressable television to customers evaluating programming as well as customers selling and buying TV advertising.
• An ability to de-duplicate audiences across platforms, which is based on direct observations within our consumer panel and census data combined with proprietary data science. This de-duplication allows us to measure the reach and frequency of advertising and content exposure across platforms and over time.
• An ability to capture the full content of a website or app session, which allows us to measure activity beyond page views such as purchase transactions, application submissions and product configurations.
• An ability to intelligently categorize massive amounts of web and video content, which allows us to inform targeted and brand-safe advertising.
Product Delivery
We deliver our products and services through diverse methods to meet the needs of our customers. These include Software-as-a-Service ("SAAS") delivery platforms, application programming interface and other data feeds that integrate directly with customer systems, and integrations with advertising technology providers such as data management platforms and demand-side platforms that enable data management, ad management and programmatic ad trading.
Our Products and Services
Our products and services help our customers measure audiences and consumer behavior across media platforms, while offering validation of advertising delivery and its effectiveness. Our customers include:
• Local and national television broadcasters and content owners;
• Network operators including cable companies, mobile operators and internet service providers;
• Distributors of streaming video content;
• Digital content publishers and internet technology companies;
• Advertising technology companies that aggregate supply and demand side inventory for sale to end customers;
• Advertising agencies;
• Movie studios and movie theater operators;
• Financial service companies, including investment firms, consumer banks and credit card issuers;
• Manufacturers and retailers of consumer products such as consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, automotive and electronics; and
• Political campaigns and related organizations.
During 2022, our products and services were organized around two solution groups:
• Digital Ad Solutions provide measurement of the behavior and characteristics of audiences across digital platforms, including computers, tablets, mobile and other connected devices. This solution group also includes custom offerings that provide end-to-end solutions for planning, optimization and evaluation of advertising campaigns and brand protection across digital platforms, including transactional outcome-based measurement driven by our Activation and Comscore Campaign Ratings ("CCR") products.
• Cross Platform Solutions provide measurement of content and advertising audiences across local, national and addressable television, including consumption through connected (Smart) televisions, and are designed to help customers find the most relevant viewing audience whether that viewing is linear, non-linear, online or on-demand. This solution group also includes custom offerings that provide end-to-end solutions for planning, optimization and evaluation of advertising campaigns across platforms. In addition, this solution group includes products that measure movie viewership and box office results by capturing movie ticket sales in real time or near real time and includes box office analytics, trend analysis and insights for movie studios and movie theater operators worldwide.
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We categorize our revenue for 2022 and prior periods along these two solution groups; however, our shared cost structure is defined and tracked by function and not by our solution groups. These shared costs include employee costs, operational overhead, data centers and our technology that supports our product offerings.
Digital Ad Solutions products and services include :
• Media Metrix Multi-Platform and Mobile Metrix, which measure websites and apps on computers, smartphones and tablets across dozens of countries, are leading currencies for online media planning and enable customers to analyze audience size, reach, engagement, demographics and other characteristics. Publishers use Media Metrix Multi-Platform and Mobile Metrix to demonstrate the value of their audiences and understand market dynamics, and advertisers and their agencies use Media Metrix Multi-Platform and Mobile Metrix to plan and execute effective marketing and content campaigns. These products also provide competitive intelligence such as cross-site visiting patterns, traffic source/loss reporting and local market trends.
• Video Metrix Multi-Platform, which delivers unduplicated measurement of digital video consumption across computer, smartphone, tablet and connected TV ("CTV") devices and provides TV-comparable reach and engagement metrics, as well as audience demographics.
• Plan Metrix, which provides an understanding of consumer lifestyle, buying and other consumption habits, online and offline, by integrating attitudes and interests with online behavior and provides customers with insight into patterns and trends needed to develop and execute advertising and marketing campaigns.
• Total Home Panel Suite, including CTV Intelligence and Connected Home, which capture CTV and IOT device usage and content consumption. Comscore Connected Home enables users to better understand consumer engagement with technology and media by measuring behavior across network and router-connected devices in the home. Comscore CTV Intelligence provides clients with critical insight into consumer streaming activity on TV-connected devices, including smart TVs, streaming sticks and boxes, and gaming consoles.
• CCR, which expands upon validated Campaign Essentials ("vCE") verification of mobile and desktop video campaigns with the addition of video advertising delivered via digital, CTV and TV and provides unduplicated reporting that enables ad buyers and sellers to negotiate and evaluate campaigns across media platforms.
• XMedia Enhanced, which provides a deduplicated view of national programming content across TV, digital, and CTV platforms.
• Comscore Marketing Solutions, which provide analytics that integrate online visitation and advertising data, TV viewing, purchase transactions, attitudinal research and other information assets. These custom deliverables are designed to meet client needs in specific industries such as automotive, financial services, media, retail, travel, telecommunications and technology. Applications include path-to-purchase analyses, competitive benchmarking, market segmentation studies, and branded content analytics.
• Lift Models, which measure the impact of advertising on a brand across multiple behavioral and attitudinal dimensions such as brand awareness, purchase intent, online visitation, online and offline purchase behavior and retail store visitation, enabling customers to fine tune campaign strategy and execution.
• Survey Analytics, which measure various types of consumer insights including brand health metrics.
• Activation Solutions, including Audience Activation and Content Activation. Comscore Audience Activation offers targeting with demographics and cross-screen behaviors for digital, mobile and CTV campaigns. Comscore Content Activation provides a robust set of pre-bid inventory filters to help marketers and media companies achieve brand-safe, relevant campaign delivery across desktop, mobile, podcasts, and CTV. A new addition to the Content Activation suite, Predictive Audiences delivers contextually delivered, ID-free segments based on granular audience behaviors.
Cross Platform Solutions products and services include :
• Comscore TV - National, which combines TV viewing information with marketing segmentation and consumer databases for enhanced audience intelligence. Comscore TV - National data is also used in analytical applications to help customers better understand the performance of network advertising campaigns.
• Comscore TV - Local, which allows customers to better understand consumer viewing patterns and characteristics across local TV stations and cable channels in their market(s) to promote viewership of a particular station and negotiate inventory pricing based on the size, value and relevance of the audience.
• OnDemand Essentials, which provides multichannel video programming distributors and content providers with transactional tracking and reporting based on millions of television screens, enabling our customers to plan advertising campaigns that more precisely target consumers watching on-demand video content.
• Movie Solutions, including Box Office Essentials and International Box Office Essentials, which provide detailed measurement of domestic and international theatrical gross receipts and attendance, with movie-specific information across the globe; PostTrak, which is an exit polling service that reports audience demographics and the aspects of each title that
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trigger interest and attendance; and Swift, which is an electronic box office reporting system that facilitates the flow of reconciled theater-level ticket transactions.
• Hollywood Software Suite, including Comscore Theatrical Distribution System ("TDS"), Comscore Exhibitor Management System ("EMS"), Comscore Enterprise Web, and Cinema Auditorium Control Engine ("ACE"). Comscore TDS is an advanced software to help manage theatrical distribution worldwide. Comscore EMS provides a virtual staff of booking assistants and accountants working to consolidate point-of-sale data. Comscore Enterprise Web gives circuit managers an over-the-shoulder look at operations inside their theaters. Cinema ACE is a theater management system that drives productivity and efficiency across digital cinema operations.
Research and Development
Our research and development activities span our business of media and cross-platform measurement, encompassing data collection, data science, analytical application development and product delivery. We continue to focus on expanding our coverage and scale, precision and granularity across diverse types of media, devices and geographies using our census, panel and other data assets.
Examples of our research and development initiatives include:
• Enhancing our recruiting methods and software applications;
• Developing new technologies to manage, stage and deliver cross-platform data and analytics through traditional web-based user interfaces and via integration with customer systems;
• Designing solutions to continue to measure the online media space while honoring increased privacy concerns, including the development of industry-compatible, interoperable methodologies that will function as browser, regulatory, and legal environments change;
• Creating new methodologies to measure person-level TV and digital consumption at scale and across platforms; and
• Continuing to develop expertise in combining multiple data assets, both to leverage single-platform datasets into representative cross-platform measurements as well as working with the data of partner companies, allowing us to enhance existing services and create new and innovative audience measurement products. These efforts include original research into the measurement of data overlaps and de-duplication in the measurement of reach.
Recent Product Investments and Releases
Cookieless - Engineering Products in a Privacy Centric World
Our digital measurement is centered upon using first party panel data combined with additional information captured through census measurement and data partnerships. Historically, we have used cookies and mobile advertising IDs to provide additional context and scale to our digital audience measurement solutions, as well as to assist in more targeted measurement and reportability. The development of new opt-in permissions and enhanced focus on consent-based measurement provide the benefit of limiting the transfer of consumer personal information, but also mean changes to data collection and measurement processes.
We are adopting and developing new methodologies to lead this transition to a more privacy-centric world. A key component is leveraging our capabilities in panels, which we believe give us a competitive advantage in digital and cross-platform management. In parallel, our work with existing and new partners to collaborate and test emerging solutions is intended to expand the reach of our large-scale integrations. We are creating measurement innovations designed to produce stronger products engineered for privacy, building from the pioneering UDM concept and moving toward privacy-first consented identifiers and methodologies.
We are also engaged in industry initiatives that focus on the viability and success of cross media measurement to support the "free web," which is driven by advertising investment. One of these initiatives, championed by the Association of National Advertisers ("ANA"), Google, Meta, and TikTok, is a global privacy measurement framework proposal from the World Federation of Advertisers ("WFA"). In 2021, we were selected by the ANA as a partner in their Cross-Media Measurement initiative for a pilot in measuring privacy-preserving reach and frequency measurements for television and digital media audiences, which is capable of reporting both demographics and cross-platform de-duplication. During 2022, we worked with the ANA to demonstrate that the WFA's framework for content and ad measurement can be successful and scale.
Comscore Predictive Audiences
With third-party cookie deprecation fast approaching, advertisers need bold new solutions to ensure their campaigns continue to reach the right audiences without interruption. In 2021 we launched Predictive Audiences – a cookie-free targeting capability that enables advertisers to reach audiences based on granular consumer behavior through privacy-friendly contextual signals. This solution delivers scale and precision beyond what was previously available in the industry, and can be used across digital, mobile, and CTV campaigns.
Intellectual Property
Our intellectual property assets are important to protect our business. We protect our innovations and products with numerous patents, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, and other intellectual property. In particular, we file for, and seek to acquire patent rights for our
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innovations and we continue to seek to enhance our patent portfolio through targeted and strategic patent filings and licensing opportunities. We believe that we own the material trademarks used in connection with the marketing, distribution and sale of our products, both domestically and internationally. We will continue to pursue intellectual property opportunities in areas and technologies that we deem to be strategic and appropriate for our business.
Patents
Our patents extend across our data capture and processing techniques and include the following:
• Data Collection - metering such as biometrics and audio fingerprinting, tagging such as video viewability, browser optimization, IP obfuscation and TV-off measurement methodology.
• Data Processing - traffic and content categorization, demographic attribution, ad effectiveness measurement, data overlap and fusion, invalid traffic detection, data weighting, projection and processing of return path data.
Trademarks
We file and maintain trademark protection for our products and services. We rely on trademarks and service marks to protect our intellectual property assets and believe these are important to our marketing efforts and the competitive value of our products and services. We have registered trademarks around the globe, including Unified Digital Measurement®, UDM®, vCE®, Metrix®, Essentials®, Box Office Essentials®, OnDemand Essentials®, and TV Essentials®. This 10-K also contains additional trademarks and trade names of our Company and our subsidiaries. All trademarks and trade names appearing in this 10-K are the property of their respective holders.
Licenses
We license data from third-party providers across the media platforms that we measure. Our licenses include agreements with satellite, telecommunications and cable operators covering television and VOD viewership data, third-party scheduling datasets and data matching partners, and agreements with providers of demographic and behavioral mobile and panel data. See "Our Approach to Media Measurement" above for a discussion of our data sourcing.
Competition
The market for audience and advertising measurement products is highly competitive and is evolving rapidly. We compete primarily with other providers of media intelligence and related analytical products and services. We also compete with providers of marketing services and solutions, with full-service survey providers and with internal solutions developed by customers and potential customers. Our principal competitors include:
• Full-service market research firms, including Nielsen, Ipsos and GfK;
• Television measurement competitors, which are evolving with the marketplace and now include advertising measurement startups such as VideoAmp, iSpot and others;
• Companies that provide audience ratings for TV, radio and other media that have extended or may extend their current services, particularly in certain international markets, to the measurement of digital media, including Nielsen Audio (formerly Arbitron) and Xperi Corporation;
• Online advertising companies that provide measurement of online ad effectiveness and ad delivery used for billing purposes, including Nielsen, Google and Meta;
• Companies that provide digital advertising technology point solutions, including DoubleVerify, Integral Ad Science, Oracle Moat and HUMAN;
• Companies that provide audience measurement and competitive intelligence across digital platforms, including Nielsen, Similarweb and Data AI;
• Analytical services companies that provide customers with detailed information about behavior on their own websites, including Adobe Analytics, IBM Digital Analytics and WebTrends Inc.;
• Companies that report Smart TV data such as Vizio, LG, Samsung and Samba TV; and
• Companies that provide consumers with TV and digital services such as DirecTV and Comcast.
We compete based on the following principal factors:
• The ability to provide accurate measurement of digital audiences across multiple digital platforms;
• The ability to provide TV audience measurement based on large-scale data that increases accuracy and reduces variability;
• The ability to provide deduplicated audience measurement across platforms;
• The ability to provide actual, accurate and reliable data regarding audience behavior and activity in a timely manner, including the ability to maintain large and statistically representative panels;
• The ability to provide reliable and objective third-party data that, as needed, is able to receive industry-accepted accreditation;
• The ability to adapt product offerings to emerging digital media technologies and standards;
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• The breadth and depth of products and their flexibility and ease of use;
• The availability of data across various industry verticals and geographic areas and expertise across these verticals and in these geographic areas; and
• The ability to offer products that meet the changing needs of customers, particularly in the evolving privacy environment.
We believe we compete favorably on these factors and that our vision and investments in the future of media measurement across platforms will deliver products and services that our customers will continue to trust and value.
Government Regulation and Privacy
Data security and privacy laws apply to our various businesses. We have programs in place to detect, contain and respond to data security incidents; however, increasing technology risks or unauthorized users who successfully breach our network security could misappropriate or misuse our proprietary information or cause interruptions in our services. Many countries have data protection laws with different requirements than those in the U.S., and many states in the U.S. have or are developing their own data protection and privacy requirements. This may result in inconsistent requirements and differing interpretations across jurisdictions.
Governments, privacy advocates and class action attorneys are increasingly scrutinizing how companies collect, process, use, store, share and transmit personal data. A number of laws have recently come into effect, and there are proposals pending before federal, state and foreign legislative and regulatory bodies that have affected and are likely to continue to affect our business. For example, the European Union's ("EU") General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR, became effective in 2018, imposing more stringent EU data protection requirements and providing for greater penalties for noncompliance. In addition, regulators in the EU, the U.S. and elsewhere are increasingly focused on transparency, consent, consumer choice and the collection of data using tracking technologies. In the EU, cross-border data transfers are increasingly scrutinized to ensure compliance, and there have been expanded enforcement efforts in this area. Five U.S. states now have comprehensive privacy laws governing the collection and use of personal information. The California Consumer Privacy Act, which went into effect in 2020, was substantially expanded by the California Privacy Rights Act of 2020, which went into effect in January 2023. The Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act, the Colorado Privacy Act, the Connecticut Data Privacy Act and the Utah Consumer Privacy Act all came into effect or will come into effect in 2023. These U.S. federal and state and foreign laws and regulations, which in some cases can be enforced by private parties in addition to government entities, are constantly evolving and impose new and complex requirements on our business. Failure to comply with these laws or other privacy, data collection, data transfer or consent requirements, could result in substantial penalties and reputational harm.
We also monitor actions by the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, and their state and foreign counterparts, including regulatory developments affecting Internet Service Providers, advertisers and other industry participants.
Human Capital Management
Our management of human capital is essential to the success of our company, and our management team is actively engaged in developing a strong, engaged team to execute on our business plans.
As of January 31, 2023, we had 1,382 employees and 174 contingent providers/contractors. Our employee population, which is comprised 94% of full-time employees and 6% of part-time employees, is dispersed across the globe, as outlined below as of December 31, 2022.
Percent of Employees
North America 61%
Asia-Pacific Rim 17%
Europe 12%
Latin America 10%
The following table outlines the percentage of employees in different functional areas as of December 31, 2022:
Percent of Employees
Product and Technology 52%
Sales and Service 23%
Movies 15%
General and Administrative 10%
Employee Engagement & Retention
The development, attraction and retention of talent is critical to the success of our business. We focus on building employee engagement; developing a positive culture of trust, transparency, learning, and involvement; and competitive pay and benefits
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structures to attract and retain employees and protect the intellectual capital that we have built. We regularly review our employee turnover and satisfaction rates, and develop strategies and tactics to improve employee engagement and retention. On average, employee tenure is approximately five years, and more than 10% of our employees have been employed by our company for more than ten years.
We seek to attract and retain the best talent from a diverse group of sources around the world, in order to meet our current and future staffing needs. In addition to a robust employee referral practice and independent outreach, we have developed relationships with universities, professional associations, and industry alliances to further increase our outreach and talent pool. In 2022, our company conducted hiring in North America, Europe, India, and Latin America.
Where feasible within the countries in which we operate, we provide a competitive and varied portfolio of healthcare, wellness, financial, and other benefit offerings to suit the diverse needs and lifestyles of our employees. Within the United States, 84% of our employee population was enrolled in one of our healthcare plans as of December 31, 2022.
We provide virtual, on-demand learning opportunities to all employees, and we also develop and deliver custom learning programs to meet specific business needs and employee interests. In 2022, approximately 80% of our employees participated in learning activities through the on-demand portal.
We believe we have strong labor practices and employee-friendly policies that enable a culture of trust, collaboration, and compliance. Our employment standards begin and end with respect for the dignity and worth of each person. Employees have multiple avenues through which to express opinions, ideas, and concerns, which enables an open culture of communication and inclusion; our policies require that complaints are investigated and any findings are addressed. Our employees are not represented by labor unions outside of those few countries where union representation is a customary practice of doing business. The Company operates a Compliance Management System, a key component of which is mandatory training for all employees in areas including workplace harassment and our code of business conduct.
Work Environment
We believe we have created a work environment, whether in person or virtually, that represents our commitment to safety and wellness. We provide both system and technology capability as well as personal support, including wellness activities and resources, virtual social activities, and support for working parents. Supporting the person, not just the "worker," allows us to maintain business operations without endangering employees or customers. We had no safety incidents reported in 2022.
Diversity and Inclusion
We strive to build and develop a workforce that reflects diversity, equity, and inclusion at all levels of the organization. As of December 31, 2022, over 40% of our global workforce was female and approximately 40% of our executive leaders were female. Within the United States, more than 30% of our employees identified as a person of color or as other than white. Our view is that our culture of involvement and appreciation of others enables us to more fully develop and leverage the strengths of our workforce to meet our business objectives. We place a high value on inclusion and employee-led opportunities across the Company, including the Employee Resource Groups ("ERGs") which are sponsored by senior leadership but are developed and maintained by diverse groups of employees who share or champion common interests, representations, or causes. We currently have ERGs in support of LGBTQ+ persons, people of color, women, young professionals, and remote workers. We have amplified our conversation and actions relating specifically to inclusion and diversity in the last year, taking a more active executive stance and implementing learning and development initiatives, additional ERGs, virtual employee gatherings and activities, and talent acquisition opportunities.
Locations and Geographic Areas
We are located around the globe with employees in 17 countries. Our primary geographic market is the United States, followed by Asia, Europe, Latin America and Canada. For information with respect to sales by geographic markets, refer to Footnote 4 , Revenue Recognition , of the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements.
Executive Officers and Directors
Executive Officers
Jonathan (Jon) Carpenter has served as our Chief Executive Officer since July 2022 and was our Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer from November 2021 to July 2022. Mr. Carpenter previously served as Chief Financial Officer of Publishers Clearing House, a direct marketing and media company, from June 2016 until November 2021. Prior to Publishers Clearing House, he served in divisional CFO roles for Nielsen Company, Sears Holdings and NBC Universal. He began his career with General Electric in the GE Financial Management Program. Mr. Carpenter holds a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Vermont.
Mary Margaret Curry has served as our Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer since July 2022 and as our Chief Accounting Officer since December 2021. Ms. Curry joined Comscore in 2011 and has served in roles of increasing scope and responsibility since then, including as Global Tax Director (August 2011 to July 2015), Senior Director of Global Tax Compliance and Reporting (July 2015 to May 2018), Vice President of Tax and Treasury (May 2018 to November 2020) and Senior Vice President and Controller (November
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2020 to December 2021). Prior to joining Comscore, she spent nine years with KPMG. Ms. Curry holds bachelor's and master's degrees in accounting from East Carolina University and is a Certified Public Accountant.
David Algranati has served as our Chief Innovation Officer since August 2022. Dr. Algranati was our Chief Product Officer from May 2019 to August 2022 and our Senior Vice President, Product Management from January 2016 to May 2019. He previously served as Senior Vice President, Product Innovation and Custom Research at Rentrak Corporation from July 2011 until our merger with Rentrak in January 2016. Prior to Rentrak, he held various roles with Simmons Market Research and Experian. Dr. Algranati holds a bachelor's degree in political science from The George Washington University, master's degrees in statistics and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University, and a doctorate in statistics and public policy from Carnegie Mellon University.
Gregory (Greg) Dale has served as our Chief Operating Officer since August 2022 and was our General Manager, Digital from December 2021 to August 2022. Mr. Dale previously served as Chief Operating Officer of Shareablee, Inc., a social media marketing analytics company, from July 2018 through our acquisition of Shareablee in December 2021. Prior to Shareablee, he was Chief Operating Officer of Persado, an artificial intelligence-based marketing content platform, from April 2016 to February 2018. Mr. Dale previously held senior roles with Comscore from 1999 to 2016, and prior to that, worked with data and analytics firm Information Resources, Inc. He holds a bachelor's degree from Purdue University.
Non-Executive Directors
Nana Banerjee has served as Chairman of the Board since July 2022 and as a director since March 2021 . Dr. Banerjee serves as a senior advisor to the CEO of Cerberus Capital Management, a private equity firm, since September 2021. He also serves on the Board of multiple Cerberus portfolio companies. From March 2020 to September 2021, he served as a Senior Managing Director of Cerberus Global Technology Solutions. Dr. Banerjee brings extensive experience in leading, innovating and scaling analytics and technology businesses globally. Prior to joining Cerberus, he served as the President and CEO of McGraw-Hill, an education solutions company, and a member of its Board of Directors from April 2018 to October 2019. From September 2012 to March 2018, he was Group President and an Executive Officer of Verisk Analytics, a data analytics company, with responsibility for its high-growth businesses as well as oversight responsibility for its joint data and development environment and its centralized AI and advanced analytics organizations. He joined Verisk as part of its acquisition of Argus Information and Advisory Services, where he was CEO, and co-president and chief operating officer in prior roles. In other prior roles, Dr. Banerjee served as head of Citibank's credit card business in the United Kingdom and as vice president of marketing and analytics at GE Capital. Dr. Banerjee has a Ph.D. in applied mathematics from the State University of New York, a M.S. degree in mathematics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, and a B.S. degree with honors in mathematics from St. Stephens College, Delhi. Dr. Banerjee's extensive experience in analytics and technology enable him to bring valuable perspective to our Board.
Itzhak Fisher has served as a director since March 2021. Mr. Fisher is the Chairman and founder (2014 to present) of Pereg Ventures, a venture capital fund that invests in B2B information services businesses across the United States and Israel. Previously, he served as the EVP of global product, strategy and business development at Nielsen, as founder and Executive Chairman of Trendum, and as President and CEO of RSL Communications, where he built a telecommunications company that operated in over 20 countries and generated more than $1.5 billion in revenues. Mr. Fisher received a B.S. in Computer Science from New York Institute of Technology and completed advanced studies in computer science at New York University. He served on the board of directors of SITO Mobile from June 2017 to July 2018. His other affiliations include the Strategic Advisory Group, Goldman Sachs; Advisory Board, NYU Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences; and President's Council, Tufts University. Mr. Fisher brings to our Board substantial experience in creating, operating and investing in digital, media and retail companies.
Leslie Gillin has served as a director since January 2023. Ms. Gillin is Chief Growth Officer of Pagaya Technologies, a financial technology company, where she oversees global growth strategy, business development, marketing, public relations and external communications. She joined Pagaya in October 2021 from JPMorgan Chase, where she served as Chief Marketing Officer of the firm (December 2019 to April 2021) and prior to that was President of Chase's CoBrand Cards Services (February 2017 to December 2019). Ms. Gillin has also held senior executive leadership positions at Bank of America, Citi and MBNA, including leadership roles in Canada and Europe. She has been recognized as a Top 50 Women Leaders by Women We Admire in 2022, as one of 2022's Top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology by The Financial Technology Report , honored as a Woman of the Year 2022 by The Stevie Awards' Women in Business and a Top 25 CMO to Watch by Business Insider in 2020. Ms. Gillin serves on the board of directors of Establishment Labs, a Nasdaq-listed women's biotech company, and has served on the board of The Ad Council, MasterCard UK Forum, the Philadelphia International Council of the Arts, The Please Touch Museum and the Delaware Bankers Association. She holds a degree in international relations and Spanish from the University of Delaware and also attended the University of Salamanca. Ms. Gillin brings a strong background in buy-side media analytics, marketing and financial services to our Board.
David Kline has served as a director since March 2021. Mr. Kline is Executive Vice President at Charter Communications, a communications and media company, and President of Spectrum Reach, the advertising sales division of Charter. Mr. Kline joined Charter in 2015 and provides strategic leadership to guide the company in both the traditional and advanced TV advertising space. Mr. Kline joined Charter from Visible World (now FreeWheel), where he served as President and COO directing their household addressable sales and programmatic advertising efforts. Earlier in his career, he served as President and COO of Cablevision Media Sales (now Altice Media Solutions) for more than 17 years. Mr. Kline serves on the board of directors for the Video Advertising Bureau and private companies Ampersand, Blockgraph (where he was appointed Chairman in April 2022) and Canoe. He received a
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B.A. in a personalized study program focusing on marketing, finance, accounting and management from Ohio State University. Mr. Kline is a pioneering leader in the traditional and advanced TV advertising space and brings valuable relationships and perspective to our Board.
Pierre Liduena has served as a director since April 2021. Mr. Liduena is Group Vice President, Business Development at Charter Communications, a communications and media company, where he manages strategic partnerships for Charter. Prior to this he was Vice President, Corporate Development at Charter, where he managed M&A and Corporate Ventures activities. Prior to joining Charter in 2012, Mr. Liduena worked at UBS in the Technology, Media & Telecom investment banking group, and at EY in the Audit and Transaction Advisory groups. Mr. Liduena holds a Master in Management from EDHEC Business School in France, and an M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. In addition, he is a graduate of the Cable Executive Management program at Harvard Business School. Mr. Liduena brings to our Board financial expertise and substantial M&A and industry experience.
William (Bill) Livek has served as our Vice Chairman since January 2016. Mr. Livek was our Chief Executive Officer from November 2019 to July 2022 and our President from January 2016 to May 2018. He previously served as Vice Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Rentrak Corporation, a media measurement and consumer targeting company, from June 2009 until our merger with Rentrak in January 2016. Prior to Rentrak, Mr. Livek was founder and Chief Executive Officer of Symmetrical Capital, an investment and consulting firm; Senior Vice President, Strategic Alliances and International Expansion, of Experian Information Solutions, Inc., a provider of information, analytical and marketing services; and co-President of Experian's subsidiary Experian Research Services. Mr. Livek has served on the board of directors of the Advertising Research Foundation ("ARF") since July 2022, and prior to that was a member of the ARF board of trustees. He holds a B.S. degree in Communications Radio/Television from Southern Illinois University. Mr. Livek brings substantial industry experience and audience measurement expertise to our Board.
Kathleen (Kathi) Love has served as a director since April 2019. Ms. Love is currently the CEO of Motherwell Resources LLC, a company devoted to management consulting and executive coaching. Prior to founding Motherwell in 2013, Ms. Love served as the President and CEO of GFK MRI (formerly Mediamark Research). MRI produced audience ratings for the consumer magazine industry in the United States, along with offering a projectable database on the demographics, attitudes, activities and buying behaviors of the U.S. consumer. MRI also developed and sold various software products. In 2018, Ms. Love was inducted into the Market Research Council Hall of Fame. Prior to joining MRI, Ms. Love held executive positions at The New York Times, EMAP Publishing and The Magazine Publishers of America. She has been an adjunct or guest instructor at Rutgers University, Brooklyn College and Queens College. Ms. Love holds a B.A. degree from Douglass College, Rutgers – The State University, an M.A. from Michigan State University and an M.Phil. from The Graduate Center, C.U.N.Y. She has advanced to candidacy for a Ph.D. in psychology and is a professional certified executive coach (PCC) and a member of the International Coach Federation (ICF). She has served on the board of directors of the Advertising Research Foundation, The Media Behavior Institute and the Market Research Council, of which she is past President. She sits on the board of the Associate Alumnae of Douglass College and serves as the treasurer and on the investment committee. She also uses her coaching skills during pro bono work at the Atlas School for Autism.
Martin (Marty) Patterson has served as a director since March 2021. Mr. Patterson currently serves as Vice President of Liberty Media Corporation, Qurate Retail, Inc., Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc. and Liberty Broadband Corporation. He has been with Liberty Media Corporation, a media, communications and entertainment company, and its predecessors since 2010. Mr. Patterson currently serves as a director of Skyhook Wireless, Inc. and was formerly a director of Ideiasnet S.A. He received his B.A. from Colorado College and is a CFA Charterholder. Mr. Patterson brings to our Board extensive experience identifying and evaluating investment opportunities in the technology, media and telecommunications sectors.
Brent Rosenthal has served as Lead Director since July 2022 and as a director since January 2016. He served as Chairman of the Board from April 2018 to July 2022. Mr. Rosenthal is the Founder of Mountain Hawk Capital Partners, LLC, an investment fund focused on small and microcap equities in the technology, media, telecom (TMT) and food industries. Mr. Rosenthal has been the Lead Independent Director/Non-Executive Chairman of the board of directors of RiceBran Technologies, a food company, since July 2016 and served as an advisor to the board of directors and executive management of FLYHT Aerospace from December 2019 to June 2020 and as a member of the FLYHT Aerospace board of directors since June 2020. He also served on the board of directors of SITO Mobile, Ltd., a mobile location-based media platform, from August 2016 to July 2018, and as Non-Executive Chairman of its board of directors from June 2017 to July 2018. Previously, Mr. Rosenthal was a Partner in affiliates of W.R. Huff Asset Management where he worked from 2002 to 2016. Mr. Rosenthal served as the Non-Executive Chairman of Rentrak Corporation from 2011 to 2016. He was Special Advisor to the board of directors of Park City Group from November 2015 to February 2018. Mr. Rosenthal earned his B.S. from Lehigh University and M.B.A. from the S.C. Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University. He is an inactive Certified Public Accountant. Mr. Rosenthal brings to our Board financial expertise and experience in the media and information industries.
Brian Wendling has served as a director since March 2021. Mr. Wendling is Chief Accounting Officer and Principal Financial Officer of Liberty Media Corporation, Qurate Retail, Inc. and Liberty Broadband Corporation. He is also Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc. Mr. Wendling has held various positions with these companies and their predecessors since 1999. Prior to joining these companies, he worked in the assurance practice of the accounting firm KPMG. Mr. Wendling has previously served on the boards of Fun Technologies Inc. and CommerceHub, Inc. He also serves on the board of
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Clothes to Kids of Colorado. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in accounting from Indiana University. Mr. Wendling brings over 25 years of accounting, public reporting and compliance experience to our Board.
Available Information
We make our periodic and current reports along with amendments to such reports available, free of charge, on our website as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). Our website address is www.comscore.com, and such reports are made available free of charge under "SEC Filings" in the Investor Relations section of our website. Information contained on our website is not part of this 10-K and is not incorporated herein by reference.
You can read our SEC filings, including this 10-K as well as our other periodic and current reports, on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.
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