The news: Adtech company Viant agreed to purchase attention measurement provider TVision in a deal worth $40 million. The total amount includes $22.5 million in cash and $17.5 million in shares of Viant’s Class A common stock.

The acquisition is expected to close this month.

Buying TVision will integrate its deterministic, eyes-on-screen attention data into Viant’s demand-side platform (DSP) to make attention metrics actionable and accessible directly on the platform where marketers make major buying decisions.

Behind the buy: Viant believes that attention metrics will become a more important gauge of ad value in streaming and digital media, moving beyond impression-based buying alone.

With TVision’s eyes-on-screen data, Viant can give advertisers a clearer view of whether consumers actually saw the ads—informing buying decisions directly in the platform. CEO Tim Vanderhook said the deal will let advertisers apply attention, co-viewing, and in-room signals to campaigns, including through attention-adjusted CPMs.

Zooming out: Marketers are sharpening their focus on attention metrics because it offers more nuanced and actionable insights on ad effectiveness.

Attention metrics offer several notable benefits:

• They go beyond impressions to determine whether viewers actually pay attention to ads and for how long. Eyes-on-screen technology offers a more accurate picture of engagement beyond ad exposure.
• Consolidations like TVision and Viant mean advertisers gain access to real-time, scalable measurement—converting attention from a post-campaign metric to a critical signal for planning and optimization.
• Attention metrics also help advertisers better link exposure to key performance indicators like web traffic, sales, installs, and store visits rather than only reach.