Steven Perlberg

After less than a decade of existence, smartphones and tablets in 2014 will draw more money from advertisers than the centuries-old newspaper industry or the nearly century-old radio sector, a sign of just how rapidly technology is transforming media habits.

But given how much time Americans spend on their devices, mobile-ad spending could be much higher, an indication that marketers remain uncertain about the medium's effectiveness. Research firm eMarketer estimates that spending on mobile advertising, which includes both smartphones and tablets, will soar 83% to nearly $18 billion in 2014. Newspapers will draw nearly $17 billion, while radio will bring in $15.5 billion.

Still, the imbalance remains stark: American adults now spend almost a quarter of their media time on mobile devices, eMarketer estimates, yet 2014 spending growth will raise mobile's share of the ad market to only 9.8%. By contrast, American adults spend only 2% of their media time reading newspapers but ad spending for the sector hangs just under 10% of the overall market, eMarketer estimates.

World Cup rights-holders are trying to stop digital competitors who are helping themselves to highlights from the tournament without permission.

Viewers have a range of ways to view officially-licensed ESPN and Univision coverage of the World Cup, from watching it on cable to streaming it on their mobile devices. But fans also track the games elsewhere, like on Twitter and fast-acting sites that quickly create animated GIFs and videos on Vine -- a Twitter-owned app that makes six-second looping videos.

Following inquiries from CMO Today, however, the video was promptly removed from the Slate site. A person familiar with the matter said the publisher removed the video after being contacted by ESPN.

Rentrak is making headway in its battle for a bigger piece of the audience measurement business.

The firm’s announcement that it struck a long-term deal to provide local market TV ratings to Fox Television Stations follows similar deals with other TV companies recently. Sony Pictures TV enlisted Rentrak to measure syndicated TV shows and CBS began making use of the service in early 2014.

Nielsen, which has long been the industry leader for TV research, still provides the ratings currency upon which national TV advertising is bought and sold. Nielsen collects that data through surveys of a sample of US homes. But broadcasters, which have complained that Nielsen’s numbers understate their true ratings, can use the deals with Rentrak to put pressure on Nielsen.

Typically when broadcasters hire Rentrak they also keep using Nielsen. In the case of Fox Television Stations, an insider says it struck its deal with Rentrak as it negotiates a new contract with Nielsen, but say one has nothing to do with the other. But Fox’s statement about the Rentrak deal highlights its desire for a more refined audience measure.

“We expect this will accelerate the long overdue progress toward an accurate digital measuring system in local TV, one based on a census, not estimates, and one that measures all screens,” Fox Television Stations chief executive Jack Abernethy said.

Rentrak is appealing because it offers the ability to tie viewership to consumer buying habits, which can be a great advantage to marketers planning out local ads. Rentrak has struck agreements with cable and satellite providers to collect data from millions of set-top boxes in different markets. It matches that data with other data sets about consumer purchases.

Marketers have been pouring money into mobile, but they’re still hungry for better tools to track the reach of their ads. Now there are signs of progress at the big measurement firms.

Nielsen will announce it is partnering with BrightRoll and TubeMogul -- two digital ad-sales firms -- for a technical trial before the expanding its ad-tracking system, known as Online Campaign Ratings, to mobile this summer.

ComScore, a Nielsen rival, announced the expansion of its measurement product, Validated Campaign Essentials, to track ads appearing on smartphones and tablets.

The two initiatives are evidence of how important tracking consumer activity on mobile devices is becoming to advertisers -- and how measurement companies are scrambling to provide more of that information.