In today’s evolving media landscape, audience measurement isn’t one-size-fits-all. With multiple measurement providers now available, networks need the flexibility to transact using the data sources that best fit their business needs. That’s why WideOrbit is excited to introduce Multiple Audience Rating Sources (MARS) in WO Network, our industry-leading network ad sales and commercial operations platform.

Transact on Multiple Audience Rating Sources

MARS in WO Network allows networks to transact on any audience rating source – from proposal to stewardship – all within one integrated platform. This includes Comscore, iSpot.tv, Nielsen, and VideoAmp, with the ability to add new ratings sources in the future. MARS provides the flexibility to easily transact on multiple sources across every stage of the deal lifecycle.

With MARS, you can:

• Customize demo definitions per ratings source
• Use rate cards that include new audience sources
• View, report on, and transmit data by Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
• Steward delivery and liability reports using new audience sources
• And more!

This new capability ensures your teams can adapt to an industry that’s rapidly embracing alternative currencies — without disrupting existing workflows.

A Smarter Way to Manage Demos and Ratings Sources

With MARS, you can create a rating source, define demo relationships, define stewardship link abilities, and define reporting options. Additionally, because MARS supports multiple measurement providers, Demo Names in WO Network have been expanded to include both the Rating Source and Rating Stream.

For example, in 2024, Demos included Market Break code and Demo code (ex: AA P18-49 or P18-49, General was blank). Now with MARS, Demos will also reflect the Rating Source Code and Rating Stream Code, ensuring greater clarity and accuracy when analyzing performance across providers.

Enhanced Stewardship and Reporting

MARS also extends functionality for stewardship links and reports. You can now link across multiple rating sources and streams, including average and assist links, and print stewardship reports that include data from any rating source.

In short, MARS enables you to:

• Share audience sources and pricing in one rate card
• View and report on multiple audience sources within Deals
• Steward across more than one source in Delivery and Liability Report

What to Expect After Upgrading

System Updates

After upgrading to WO Network 2025.1 and enabling MARS, you’ll need to update security permissions for users who need access to Rating Sources. You’ll also see the following system updates, designed to ensure a smooth transition:

• Existing data will be associated with system-generated rating source labeled “Legacy”, which can be renamed to fit your organization’s naming convention.
• All Demos in Properties will now include both Rating Stream and Rating Source.
• Corporate Demos will be associated with the Legacy source, updated based on the most-used rating stream for the year before and the year following your upgrade date.
• The corporate demo limit has increased to 10, giving you more flexibility in how you define audiences

To allow a seamless upgrade of imported ratings files, a system setting has been added to allow ratings data without a source to default to Legacy. Going forward, when you set up ratings from different sources, the files will support inclusion of the rating source, so files can be loaded by source.

Existing Deals

Existing Deals will also receive automatic updates:

• Selected demos will now be linked to the system-generated Rating Source and the Deal’s primary Rating Stream.
• The limit on selectable demos has doubled from 20 to 40, bearing in mind that demos are now a four-part concatenation.

Reports

To align with the expanded demographic structure, reports containing demo dropdowns will need to be reviewed and re-saved before running.

• In-app reports will display blank demo fields until updated, with tooltips showing previously saved demos.
• Web reports will default to legacy market break and demo codes, prompting users to verify and save demo selections again.

Next Steps

Multiple Audience Rating Sources (MARS) is available now for networks running WO Network version 2025.1. If you’re on an older version, now is the perfect time to upgrade. Once enabled, your team can immediately benefit from the added flexibility and control MARS provides, helping you transact confidently across Multiple Audience Ratings Sources.

To see MARS in action, we invite you to view our recently recorded webinar.

To get started, obtain documentation, or learn more, please contact us.