NEW YORK, NY—WunderKIND Ads has released a new study analyzing the impact of Pause Ads compared with traditional CTV spots that show Pause Ads delivered nearly two times higher attention than standard 60-second CTV ads.

Pause Ads are ads that appear when users pause programming on CTVs.

Utilizing TVision attention data, the study analyzed millions of programmatic CTV impressions from WunderKIND Ads campaigns run via the OpenGlass platform. The data spanned top verticals—including Auto, QSR, CPG, and Travel—and covered hundreds of premium publishers across Dish, Philo, Plex, and more.

When broken out by category, Pause Ads outperformed traditional 60-second CTV spots across all 13 verticals analyzed. Automotive delivered the strongest results, generating 34.2 seconds of Attention Time versus 12.2 seconds for standard CTV video (+180.3%), followed by Technology at 33.3 seconds versus 12.8 seconds (+160.2%) and Restaurants at 34.0 seconds versus 13.5 seconds (+151.9%).

"Yes, these benchmarks are based on our campaigns, but the scale of the measurement analysis makes it incredibly valuable to the industry at large,” said Adam Gendelman vice president, head of sales, supply and operations at WunderKIND Ads. “We’re moving into the next phase of CTV advertising, where user-first formats are undoubtedly more effective than the historical foundation of interruptive fifteen- and thirty-second video spots.”

WunderKIND Ads’ programmatic solution, offered through OpenGlass’ advanced CTV platform, expands the company’s advertising footprint. These units seamlessly appear the moment a viewer pauses content, transforming a passive screen into an intentional, high-attention ad experience without disrupting the user experience.

More information is available at www.wunderkindads.com/

Fuse Media has announced a deal with iSpot for the cross-platform measurement and outcomes company to provide measurement and outcomes data for its CTV and FAST inventory.

“We’re excited to partner with iSpot in order to help Fuse Media drive clear value around CTV and FAST for our advertisers,” said Yasmin Mitchell, head of business intelligence & insights, Fuse Media. “Our channels reach over 85% of multicultural homes in the U.S., so helping brands not only reach these audiences – – who are often tech-savvy, early adopters – but convert ad messages into consumer action is a critical opportunity for customers.”

The agreement also enables Fuse Media to deliver at-scale outcomes-based campaign measurement for advertisers by directly linking cross-platform ad exposure to real-world consumer actions, such as website visits or in-store purchases.

Fuse Media currently has 84 million monthly unique viewers across CTV, linear and FAST.

By leveraging iSpot’s ad-centric measurement capabilities, Fuse Media will be able to immediately provide advertisers with industry-leading reach, frequency and incrementality against key growth audiences, alongside outcome-driven performance tied to channels like Billboard Español TV, LOL! Network, Fluffy TV, El Rey Rebel and Complex TV.

More specifically, iSpot’s Unified Measurement and Outcomes at Scale solutions will allow Fuse to provide advertisers with:

• Deduplicated cross-platform campaign audience performance across linear, streaming and FAST environments in a unified view.
• Incremental reach beyond linear TV, capturing audiences traditional broadcast might overlook, validating the impact of media on behavior beyond simple exposure and spike analysis.
• Closed-loop attribution that connects ad exposure to outcomes such as web visits, app installs, foot traffic, and purchases.
• In-flight optimization at scale using real-time conversion and audience signals.

“It’s no secret that modern buyers and sellers are navigating the most complex and splintered video landscape in media history,” said Stuart Schwartzapfel, executive vice president of media partnerships, iSpot. “Kudos to Fuse Media for investing in transparent and trusted third party measurement in order to prove the unique reach and impact of their CTV & FAST programming. Now, Fuse Media will be able to showcase how effectively and uniquely their inventory reaches & converts coveted multi-cultural audiences.”

NEW YORK—Nielsen will launch a pilot program leveraging a new methodology enhancement to account more accurately for co-viewing, beginning Feb. 8 with Super Bowl LX on NBC.

The program, which will continue for high-profile sports and entertainment live events in the first half of the year, will better reflect total viewership for programming, especially live events.

The initial results from the pilot program will be released a few weeks after the delivery of Nielsen final Big Data + Panel ratings.

“Nielsen’s mission is to constantly push measurement forward and deliver the most accurate data ever. This co-viewing pilot builds on that mission, alongside our recent enhancements with Big Data + Panel, out of home expansion, live streaming measurement and our wearable devices,” said Nielsen CEO Karthik Rao. “Our clients produce live TV events that get the world watching. It’s our job to make sure we are accurately counting the audiences they meticulously build.”

The new pilot methodology for co-viewing better incorporates the use of Nielsen’s proprietary wearable measurement devices. These are worn on the wrists of Nielsen panelists and resemble a smart watch. The wearables capture audio from TV events, shows and movies, allowing for more passive measurement that does not require a formal log in process.

Co-viewing estimates from the pilot program will not be immediately included in Big Data + Panel ratings from Nielsen. As such, they will not be considered “currency” that advertisers transact on, but the pilot data will be made available to Nielsen clients following the delivery of Big Data + Panel ratings.

Nielsen clients will be able to share those findings publicly. Nielsen will provide additional impact data to clients later in the year before the co-viewing methodology is fully implemented into its suite of marketing intelligence products. It has the goal of incorporating the additional data in “currency” measurement for the 2026/2027 season, Nielsen said.

The co-viewing enhancement is the first phase with additional co-viewing enhancements planned beyond 2026.

More information is available on the Nielsen website.

NEW YORK—The Interactive Advertising Bureau has announced Project Eidos, an industry-wide effort to modernize advertising and marketing measurement, at its 2026 Annual Leadership Meeting.

“While advanced measurement is widely used across the industry, it’s still falling short of its core promise. The time for a single-channel fix or a one-off framework has passed,” said IAB CEO David Cohen. “It’s time to address the foundational issues that have quietly undermined measurement for years.”

Project Eidos is a holistic, 360-degree multi-year measurement project that brings together industry leaders from every IAB Center of Excellence, board members from commerce, experience, measurement and media.

Working with industry leaders, Project Eidos will replace today’s patchwork of channel-by-channel measurement with an interoperable approach based on shared constructs and consistent language that deliver scalable, privacy-resilient measurement across all channels, including clear standards for Marketing Mix Modeling (MMM), IAB said.

“There’s no single methodology that can answer every measurement question; different approaches exist in order to answer different business questions,” said Maggie Zak, executive vice president of Analytics & Engineering at Havas Media Network. “As media has become more complex, the lack of alignment across those approaches has become a real constraint, leaving agencies to reconcile differences instead of driving growth. Project Eidos addresses this at the foundation, creating shared constructs that allow measurement approaches to work together in a more flexible and scalable way.”

The project will focus on unifying and harmonizing measurement, cross-channel outcomes, attribution and incrementality and modernizing MMM.

The just-released “IAB State of Data 2026: The AI-Powered Measurement Transformation” report underscores the need for Project Eidos. The survey polled more than 400 senior decision-makers at brands and agencies with expertise in planning or analytics, conducted in partnership with BWG Global to understand the current state of AI adoption in advanced measurement.

It examined how AI is being applied today, what value it’s delivering and what measurable improvements it can realistically drive over the next one to two years.

The survey found that while advanced measurement is broadly adopted on the buy-side, 60% to 75% of users say it falls short on rigor, timeliness, trust and efficiency. None believe all paid channels are well-represented today in MMMs.

According to the report, the buy-side believes AI can materially improve advanced measurement within one to two years. Improvements could help unlock $26.3 billion in media investment and $6.2 billion in productivity value.

About half of respondents reported scaling AI within their current advanced measurement frameworks; among those not yet scaling, more than 70% expect to do so within one to two years.

The report found roughly half of the buy-side cited significant or critical concerns related to legal and security risks, accuracy and data quality within one to two years. However, fewer than 40% report having or planning to put solutions in place to mitigate these challenges.

It also found a shift toward contractual accountability for AI. AI-related clauses currently exist in about 40% of brand-agency and partner contracts and are expected to double within one to two years.

More information about Project Eidos is available online.

More information on the “IAB State of Data 2026” report is available online.

NEW YORK—The Media Rating Council (MRC) has issued a final document outlining requirements, guidance, and best practices for Digital Advertising Auction Transparency.

As part of its ongoing effort to develop standards for media measurement, the document represents MRC’s effort to set standards for transparency, disclosure and reporting of various aspects and results for digital advertising auctions, including but not limited to display, text, video and audio formats within digital, search, social, retail media, streaming CTV and addressable TV channels.

Despite the growth and diversity of ad auctions in media, there were previously no standards for "Ad Auctioneer conduct regarding disclosure and reporting of auction rules or transparency into auction processes and outcomes,” said Ron Pinelli, senior vice president of digital research and standards for MRC. “It is the objective of these Standards to promote transparency around auction rules and scoring along with reporting and standardization where possible and appropriate, to ensure that auction rules and outcomes are understood for all parties.”

The Standards originated from a project initiated by Omnicom Media and led by the MRC, with sponsorship from the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s), the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), World Federation of Advertisers (WFA) and the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) as well as Omnicom.

The MRC reported that they were developed with the participation of a large group of media content providers, advertising agencies, advertisers, vendors/consultants, ad auctioneers, measurement organizations and other interested organizations. The final document was subject to a 30-day public comment period in September 2025.

“Digital advertising runs on auctions, but buyers still can’t typically see the rules of the game,” said Ben Hovaness, Global Chief Media Officer for Omnicom Media agency OMD. “The MRC standards create a baseline for disclosure and reporting—how an auction scores, sets prices, uses reserves, and changes over time—so advertisers can validate outcomes, improve their bid strategies, and reduce waste that never reaches working media."

This effort is not aimed at any one platform, ad auctioneer, or auction type; nor is the intention to to replace or alter existing industry protocols such as OpenRTB to communicate auction information, but to supplement them with guidance regarding methods disclosures and outcome reporting, the MRC stressed.

The MRC also said that it does not intend to stipulate or standardize the design of any auction type, as auctioneer companies can and should design auction systems to best suit the particular characteristics of a given media form.

Summarizing the desired outcome, Pinelli said, “The goal is to define the requisites for transparency and to provide guidance to auctioneers in explaining to advertisers how their auctions determine pricing and allocation and providing accountability through reporting.”

The Standards include requirements and guidelines related to disclosures and reporting in the following areas:

• Type(s) of auction system(s) used.
• How winners of auctions are determined.
• After the winners of an auction have been determined, how prices that winners must pay are set.
• Use of reserve prices and methods to update them over time.
• Use of advance information about bids and budgets to adjust the functioning of the auction process and how this is updated over time.
• How often rules of the auction system are updated and disclosed to users?
• What information is disclosed or reported about the auction system and the outcome of auction.

The document is available here.

Questions on this document can be submitted via email to MRC at: rpinelli@mediaratingcouncil.org.

NEW WINDSOR, N.Y.—PRG is a global leader in production technology, powering creativity across every corner of the live and entertainment industries. While our roots are on Broadway—and we remain deeply entrenched in theater—we now partner with the world’s biggest names in live events, concert tours, corporate experiences, television and film. Today, more than 80% of our work is in 4K or higher.

Clients come to us with an idea, and we turn it into reality. That might be the setup and rental of a couple of digital cinematography cameras for an episodic shoot, or it could be a massive production infrastructure. We’ve even delivered productions on a record-breaking scale—like season one of “Beast Games,” for which we provided more than 300 cameras.

Flyaway Systems for Scale
To support the nature of our business, we build flyaway systems that can interconnect to give us the scale we need. We include all of the video and audio processing, along with routers from Evertz or Ross Video in racks under 63 inches in height so they can fit on a plane.

We have to work within tight space constraints, but we also have to remember our ultimate goal of ensuring the highest possible quality all time. So, our systems include signal-measurement kits, and for that we rely entirely on Leader. Typically, our racks will include the LV5350 waveform monitor and the LT4670 sync generator.

That means we can easily provide complete timecode, video quality monitoring and measurement, right where the production needs it. Where there needs to be quick adjustment, users can have confidence in what they are seeing. Indeed, the Leader name is widely recognized as the one to choose for video test and measurement, so our clients feel confident knowing we use these instruments.

Our quality control starts before the kit gets to the venue. Our camera team, led by Kenny Kato, checks every camera before it goes out. Where necessary, we have built on the manufacturers’ video standards to develop our own PRG quality baselines to deliver the best possible quality and ensure consistency. A large production will have cameras in multiple formats from many manufacturers, and we ensure that they are matched as closely as is technically feasible. This reduces stress on-site and time in edit.

All the Data at a Glance
Our camera workshops use the Leader LV7600W rasterizer. This means the engineer can precisely see the measurements they want in the layout they want on a large monitor on a workbench. That includes SDI packet timing as well as waveform and vectors to ensure the perfect signal is being delivered. Being able to see all the information simultaneously is obviously a huge time-saver, and more convenient and cost-effective than buying multiple instruments from multiple vendors.

Where we are lining up high-quality cameras for episodic shoots, the LV7600W allows the engineer to fully evaluate the output against a CIE diagram. It helps me confirm whether we’re hitting Rec. 709 or BT2020. The ability to display precise code value, rather than just a waveform, speeds accuracy.

We first used Leader test and measurement equipment in 2015 when we provided the facilities for one of the world’s largest sporting events. It worked well for us, and we have seen no reason to change. Leader Instruments offer us quick and clear access to precision measurement in the form that works best for us and for our clients. They’ve proven to be reliable, efficient tools—and in our view, they’re some of the best products in the industry.

More information is available at https://leaderphabrix.com/.

NEW YORK—As part of its ongoing efforts to develop better measurement solutions, the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) announced the launch of two initiatives, the CIMM Startup Program and the CIMM Innovation Showcase, that are designed to spotlight new technologies and foster collaboration between emerging technology companies and established industry leaders.

The TV and advertising industry-backed group said that the CIMM Startup Program is a new membership program where five companies will be selected each year to join CIMM at no cost. Participating startups will gain full access to CIMM programs, events, research and network opportunities.

As part of the initiative, each company will host two deep dive seminars with detailed product demonstrations and updates on the company's progress, as well as pair up with a senior industry executive from CIMM’s Steering Committee through a “buddy program,” and be encouraged to meet quarterly for informal support and guidance.

To qualify as a Startup Program member, companies must be less than three years old and be developing solutions relevant to the media measurement and TV/video ecosystem. Applications for the program are now open, and are due November 30, 2025. CIMM will announce the five inaugural Startup participants upon program commencement, in January 2026.

In addition, CIMM reported that it will host member-only virtual events spotlighting startups (outside of those in the CIMM Startup Program) building in the TV/video measurement and adtech spaces. The CIMM Innovation Showcases will be held twice a year, featuring a cluster of carefully selected startups, each presenting a detailed overview of their business and technology, followed by audience Q&A.

CIMM explained that startups for both initiatives will be sourced via CIMM members and top venture firms, with the CIMM leadership team curating the most relevant and innovative companies for members. Through the Startup Program and the Showcase, startups will gain exposure to potential industry partners and clients, and CIMM members will benefit from direct access to cutting-edge, emerging solutions shaping the future of media measurement.

“Innovation is the backbone of everything we do – just look at our name: the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement,” said Jon Watts, managing director, CIMM. “With startups often being where transformative ideas originate, these initiatives are crucial. By creating structured ways to connect emerging companies with our members, we’re fueling the exchange of fresh thinking and practical solutions. We’re excited to deepen our focus on innovation through startups, while helping them grow and enabling our members to stay ahead of the curve in a rapidly evolving ecosystem.”

CIMM is a subsidiary of the Advertising Research Foundation.

For more information about CIMM’s innovation initiatives, and to apply for the Startup Program, visit https://cimm-us.org/startup-program/.

NEW YORK—In an important step towards creating a unified framework for measurement and reporting of attention to media, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Media Rating Council (MRC) have released their Attention Measurement Guidelines for public comment.

"Attention is getting a lot of, well, attention — but without a shared standard, it's become a bit of a Wild West situation," said Angelina Eng, vice president of measurement, addressability and data center and center of excellence operations at the IAB. "Right now, there are too many different ways to measure and define it, which creates confusion and makes it hard to compare results or build trust. These guidelines are about bringing order to the chaos. They lay down a clear, consistent foundation so that attention can be measured in a way that's credible, useful, and ready for where the industry is headed."

Developed by the IAB Attention Task Force—a group of more than 200 members from across the advertising, media, and measurement industries—the IAB and the MRC reported that these guidelines offer a structured framework for the consistent measurement and reporting of attention across media. During the public comment period of 60 days, until July 12, 2025, the IAB is inviting brands, publishers, platforms, agencies, and measurement providers to review the guidelines and provide feedback.

A final version is expected to be released before the end of 2025, laying the groundwork for future MRC accreditation audits of attention measurement services.

The measurement guidelines outline four primary methodological approaches—data signals, visual tracking, physiological and neurological observations, and panel or survey-based inputs. It also creates shared requirements that can be applied across formats and platforms.

By reducing reliance on inconsistent or proprietary methodologies, the guidelines give all sides of the ecosystem a common baseline for comparing attention metrics and aligning them to business outcomes, the IAB and MRC reported.

"From the MRC's standpoint, measurement only works when it's grounded in rigor and ready for real-world scrutiny," said Ron Pinelli, senior vice president, digital research and standards, MRC. "It's important to have industry-accepted requirements for consistent measurement and reporting of attention metrics to enable users of these measures to understand and use them in an appropriate manner. These guidelines represent a framework for attention measurement across various methodological approaches including data validation, empirical support for models used and transparency in the form of reporting and disclosure. They define not just what attention is, but how to measure it with quality and consistency in a way that's transparent, comparable, and built to inform future validation through independent audit and accreditation."

The Attention Measurement Guidelines establish clear parameters around how attention should be applied in practice — not as a replacement for delivery or outcome metrics, but as a complementary signal that can enhance how exposure and engagement are understood, the two groups explained. By aligning methodologies, definitions, and reporting principles, the framework helps reduce ambiguity and supports more confident decision-making across planning, buying, and evaluation. It gives the industry a way to move beyond experimentation and begin operationalizing attention with greater consistency and accountability, the IAB and the MRC explained.

"This is about creating the conditions for trust — and ultimately, investment — in attention as a reliable indicator of exposure and engagement," Eng concluded. "But it only works if the industry leans in during this public comment period and helps shape something we can all stand behind."

Stakeholders are encouraged to review the draft Attention Measurement Guidelines and submit comments before July 12, 2025 here: https://www.iab.com/attention.

NEW YORK—A new report from IAB highlights many of the major trends transforming the ad business, including data suggesting that 89% of ad buyers are embracing alternative measurement currencies, as well as some of the ongoing problems facing the digital advertising business. 

The newly released second half of its “2024 IAB Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report,” revealed that the three major digital video channels will see increased spend in 2024 and that buyers are investing across all video content types, from short-form to long-form to creator and immersive. Short-form (69%) and vertical-format (68%) account for the largest share of buyers.

The report also highlighted, however, ongoing problems with measurement. Two in three buyers cite measurement issues with small advertisers aiming for niche audiences rather than broad reach are significantly more likely to report issues. 

“The industry has bought, transacted, and measured against reach since the beginning of time,” said Cintia Gabilan, Vice President, Media Center, IAB. “But now business outcomes are the most important metrics to assess success, with reach and frequency coming in second. However, measurement is not yet where it needs to be. Two-thirds of buyers cite issues across nine key areas of measurement.”

Key insights from part two of the report include:

• Three-Quarters of CTV Buying Is Now Programmatic. Within that, activation is roughly equal among the real-time bidding (RTB) / open exchanges (36%), private marketplaces (PMP) / preferred deals / programmatic guaranteed (34%), and ad networks (30%).
• Buyers Are Spending More Across All Video Channels and Content Types. Part one of the report, released earlier this year, revealed that the three major digital video channels will see increased spend in 2024. Part two reveals that buyers are investing across all video content types, from short-form to long-form to creator and immersive. Short-form (69%) and vertical-format (68%) account for the largest share of buyers.
• Performance Advertising Needs Better Measurement. Business outcomes like sales, store/site visits, and leads are now the most important KPI for buyers, across all channels — social video (64%), online video (58%), and connected TV / CTV (54%). Yet two in three buyers cite measurement issues. In particular, small advertisers aiming for niche audiences rather than broad reach are significantly more likely to report issues with viewability, standardized targets, currency, and obtaining sell-side data. Streaming networks hoping to further tap the “long tail” will need to boost buyer confidence.
• Alternative Measurement Currencies Are Now Widely Used. The report found that the industry is continuing to evolve beyond strictly panel-based, gross rating points (GRP) ratings. 89% of advertisers are transacting, testing, or having discussions with alternative currency measurement vendors. Buyers value multi-screen attribution (45%) and real-time reporting (43%), and 28% of buyers are already transacting on alternative currencies. 

“As the saying goes, ‘with great power comes great responsibility’,” said David Cohen, CEO, IAB. “With the continued impressive growth of digital video comes demands for better measurement, viewability, standardized data, and placement transparency. The video ecosystem must fully commit to innovation, especially in measurement.”

The full “2024 IAB Digital Video Ad Spend & Strategy Report” is available here.

NEW YORK—As the TV and streaming industries push for better measurement solutions, the U.S. Joint Industry Committee (JIC) has in the runup to the upfronts that  Comscore and VideoAmp have been certified for transactability as national currencies. The certification came after a rigorous data evaluation as part of the final stage of its certification analysis, the group said. 

This news marks a significant milestone in the push for better measurement solutions and comes just one year after media buyers and sellers came together following the formation of the U.S. JIC to author baseline requirements for new cross-platform solutions and to conduct a thorough analysis of new currencies via its inaugural Currency Certification. 

Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount, TelevisaUnivision, and Warner Bros. Discovery and the VAB, were among the national programmers backing the effort when it was launched in January of 2023. 

"While the currencies and resulting deal structures are decided solely between buyers and sellers, we cannot drive lasting transformation of the industry individually – we need consensus, compromise, and a shared understanding across all parties to move this industry forward,” said Travis Scoles, senior vice president of advanced advertising at Paramount Global and chairman of the U.S. Joint Industry Committee's Board of Directors. “The collaboration over the last year to bring buyers and sellers to the same table to work in partnership with the measurement companies, who have dedicated an incredible amount of time, energy and resources to this process, is a testament to this industry's dedication to progress as we build a more sustainable measurement ecosystem for the future. We applaud the work of all measurement companies and encourage continued innovation as we scale.”

The JIC reported that following the Data Evaluation analysis and scoring process, a proposal on certification was made by the JIC's Measurement Subcommittee and a majority vote was reached among the Full Committee to grant overall certification to Comscore and VideoAmp as transactable national cross-platform solutions. 

The JIC also reported that iSpot will maintain its conditional certification with a final decision expected to be made in the next certification window scheduled for June 2024.

As part of an effort to give transparency to the industry on its certification results and point-of-view on the state of new currencies in 2024, JIC members have also collaborated to publish "Guidelines for Transactability of National Cross-Platform Solutions". 

Highlights of the report include: 

• Recommendations Across Currency Use Cases: Each measurement company was evaluated on the overall basis of transactability and was further analyzed across Total Households, Audiences and Personified Demo use cases. Comscore and VideoAmp were found to be transactable across both traditional metrics (ACM/AMA) and cross-platform exact spot for Advanced Audiences and Households. While providers performed strongly for linear, the JIC determined improvements should be made to be transactable at scale for cross-platform Personified Demos based on the need to provide acceptable personified reach metrics, a core requirement outlined by media buyers.
• Cross-Platform Transactability: The JIC focused on assessing readiness of transitioning toward cross-platform transaction. The evaluation encompassed each solution's ability to support both historical metrics as well as the production of new cross-platform metrics. As the market begins to shift towards big data-led solutions, the JIC believes its forthcoming Streaming Data Service will further enrich all measurement solutions with publisher first-party data.
• The recommendations provided by the JIC follow its extensive analysis completed over the last year and are intended to give the industry a baseline standard for transactability, with the currencies used and deal structure determined solely by the negotiation between the buyer and seller of media.

The JIC also reported that currency providers were evaluated against a set of minimum requirements that are needed for all cross-platform solutions to be transactional, with buyers and sellers having an equal voice in defining the criteria around transactability. Certification comes upon completion of the Data Evaluation phase, in which JIC members conducted more than 670 tests to ensure the data produced was transactable across specific currency use cases.

JIC also noted that Certification status is granted on a two-year term. The two-year certification period will span the calendar year. January 2024 through the end of December 2025 is the first term.

Measurement companies will be up for recertification every two years. A mid-term audit will be conducted to ensure the JIC has transparency on any changes to methodology. The audit will take place in November of each year, with the first cycle being held in November 2024, for any new Currency of Record data. To further enable widespread adoption of new currencies, this timeframe will give JIC members the required time needed to evaluate and test new data to be prepared for and have confidence in the new data for planning in the following Upfront. Participation is required to maintain full certification status.

The next certification window for new companies and companies who want to re-apply will take place annually in June. All companies will be subject to this timeline; however, companies may petition for an off-cycle certification window that will be subject to approval via a vote by the JIC.

More information on the role and purpose of the JIC in the U.S. market is available here. 

An overview of the certification process can also be found here. 

NEW YORK—The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) has announced significant growth in its membership over the last year and laid out its priorities for the first half of 2024. 

The Coalition, which is focused on promoting improvements, best practices and innovations in measurement and currency development, metrics and data, has been deeply involved in recent years to spur innovation in the research and address widespread industry complaints about the current state of measurement for TV, streaming and other media. 

That mission helped CIMM see rapid member growth, with almost 40 new members joining since January 2023, including: Adobe, Comcast Advertising, Dentsu, DoubleVerify, Hearst, Independent Streaming Alliance (ISA) InfoSum, Iris.TV, Nexstar, OpenX, Telly, Truthset, TVision, Yahoo and more.

Additionally, at its 2024 Annual Meeting, CIMM members approved the election of new Board member Larry Allen, vice president and general manager of data and addressable enablement for Comcast Advertising, alongside existing directors Colleen Fahey Rush, Paramount, Kate Sirkin, Publicis Epsilon, and Bharad Ramesh, GroupM.

“The TV and video marketplaces are changing rapidly, stimulating a wave of investment and innovation,” said Jon Watts, managing director of CIMM. “The priorities we’ve outlined today are intended to help the industry navigate change through meaningful collaboration and cooperation, built on a foundation of insight, evidence and effective planning. It builds on an extensive consultation exercise with our membership base of 100+ companies, reflecting shared priorities and the growing importance of collaboration and shared investments. Uniquely, CIMM is a pan-industry, non-partisan Coalition, representing buyers and sellers, platforms, measurement and data providers, and major technology companies.”

For the first half of 2024, CIMM said its key priorities included: 

• Supporting innovations and improvements in measurement and currency development: CIMM will be supporting initiatives designed to identify clear priorities for improving measurement solutions, through new technologies, standardization, collaboration and governance in both national and local markets. Focus areas will include AI, watermarking, content and asset identification and ACR data.
• Helping buyers to navigate change in currency and measurement: Working collaboratively with other industry participants, CIMM will look to support agencies and advertisers as they look to unlock the full potential of different currencies and advanced TV advertising offerings.
• Building trust, quality and transparency and collaboration in identity resolution: Identity spines and solutions are increasingly foundational for buyers and sellers, but the market remains immature and lacks transparency. We will be launching a major strategic review of the landscape, to identify opportunities for improvement and to support the roll out of new solutions.
• Developing best practices for new ecosystems: CIMM will work with the industry to develop best practices for measurement and metrics in the programmatic TV ecosystem and to support the use of first-party streaming data in syndicated measurement solutions.
• Building capabilities and strategic roadmaps for content measurement: Content measurement remains critically important for studios, networks and programmers, but faces important challenges. CIMM will work with leading publishers to identify opportunities for improvement and investment.

For more information about CIMM’s commissioned studies or to learn more about membership, visit: www.cimm-us.org. 

NEW YORK—IAB has released its annual report, “State of Data 2024: How the Digital Ad Industry is Adapting to the Privacy-by-Design Ecosystem,” which reveals substantial operational and financial adjustments being undertaken by the digital ecosystem as it moves towards a privacy-by-design architecture.

The study, conducted by IAB in partnership with BWG Strategy, surveyed over 500 advertising and data experts at brands, agencies, and publishers. The study found that the move to Privacy-by-Design, which refers to efforts to integrate privacy into the design of products, services and systems, is prompting substantial operational and financial adjustments being undertaken by the digital ecosystem.

“The meaningful investments being made are proof positive of the industry’s commitment to a privacy-first orientation,” said David Cohen, CEO, IAB. “Executives are taking notice and funding the right initiatives for the next stage of industry growth”.

Key findings from the study include:

• The researchers said that nearly all (95%) advertising and data decision-makers at brands, agencies, and publishers "expect continued signal loss and/or privacy legislation in 2024 and beyond."
• The industry is investing in hiring new Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), updating training for their staff, creating dedicated teams, expanding their legal expertise, leveraging new technologies, and increasing first-party data efforts.
• Additionally, 82% of the respondents said the makeup and structure of their organizations have been impacted by legislation and signal loss. Nearly 80% are training or planning to train their staff directly in data/privacy-related topics, while half of companies are creating or planning to create dedicated teams/departments (49%) and hiring or planning to hire external SMEs (48%).
• Respondents believe the new paradigm will challenge targeting, personalization, and measurement.
• More than half expect it to be harder to track conversions overall (55%), post-view conversions (52%), attribute campaign/channel performance (55%), measure ROI (55%), make optimizations (50%), and measure frequency (50%) and reach (47%). Nearly nine-in-ten ad buyers report shifts in personalization tactics, ad spend, and their mix of first, second, and third-party data. Over three-in-four cite selection changes in media channels and KPIs, along with more seller-direct deals.
• To improve data quality, brands, agencies, and publishers are turning to first-party data and data-enrichment tools.
• The study found that 71% of brands, agencies, and publishers are currently or planning to grow their first-party datasets, nearly twice the rate of just two years ago (41%).

“To tackle data quality challenges, it's crucial for brands, agencies, and publishers to continue to adopt innovative analytical methods including Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning, and media mix modeling that are less dependent on tracking signals and third-party cookies,” said Angelina Eng, vice president of Measurement, Addressability & Data Center, IAB.

The study also focused on how the shift to privacy-by-design is transforming media planning and buying. It found that ad spending that taps first-party data and engages audiences at scale are being prioritized. Nearly nine-in-ten ad buyers report a shift in message personalization strategies (89%), ad investment costs (87%), and over three-in-four cite selection changes in media channels (81%) and KPIs (79%), along with more seller-direct deals.

Ad buyers are also shifting budgets to Connected TV, retail media, search, and social networks which rely less on cookies, provide access to valuable first-party data and precise targeting, and contain embedded measurement.

The study also found that overhauling and reinventing data processes is a costly sea change that will hurt small and medium-sized publishers and favor larger companies. 

Large companies are investing more in identity anonymization training (79%) than small companies (64%). They are also investing more in training in privacy-preserving technologies (62%) — which can cost over $2 million annually — than small companies (44%).

Signal loss is already pushing advertising budgets toward closed ecosystems at a moment when independent publishers can least afford to lose revenue. 

“The industry’s embrace of privacy-by-design is the right thing for the industry and consumers alike,” Eng continued. “But if small independent publishers aren’t protected, the vibrant, independent open web that consumers love is at serious risk.”

The study, State of Data 2024: How the Digital Ad Industry is Adapting to the Privacy-by-Design Ecosystem can be downloaded here. 

Inscape, a major provider of currency-grade smart TV data from millions of Vizio TVs, has announced they are expanding measurement coverage of local stations by tapping directly into tuners built into Smart TVs.

The new solution will significantly increase Inscape’s coverage to thousands of local stations and offer local TV stations a big data source for over-the-air viewing spanning all stations and markets., the company said.

The launch comes at a time when cord cutting has made the measurement of over-the-air signals more important than ever. Currently about 18% of TV households report having a digital antenna and watching TV over the air., Inscape reported.

Both Comscore and Videoamp are adding the data to their measurement solutions.

“For Comscore, having multiple sources of data capture is a key component of our TV measurement approach, which spans across all 210 local markets. Incorporating Smart TV Tuner Data from Inscape gives Comscore additional views into local station viewing behaviors, enabling us to better serve our clients with the most precise measurement,” said David Algranati, chief innovation officer, Comscore.

“By unlocking the potential of local TV in this game-changing way and bringing the full power of big data to OTA signals, clients and the industry as a whole will now have a critical entrypoint to previously unfeasible attribution of local TV content,” said Charbel Makhoul, vice president of product management, data science and analytics at Vizio/Inscape.

“We’re excited that Inscape is bringing the scale and representativeness from its 22+ million opt-in Smart TV homes to local,” said Josh Chasin, former chief measurability officer, VideoAmp. “In doing so, the entire local marketplace will now have access to the highest fidelity data in order to capitalize on the growth potential that CTV brings to the space. Local TV, and especially over the air (OTA) digital broadcast, is one of the most robust spaces in the video ecosystem. We’re thrilled that Inscape is proactively supporting the measurement of this vital piece of the video pie.”

The company said that Inscape’s Tuner Data will help address the longstanding challenge of measuring viewers and developing accurate audience insights regarding the viewing of local Over-the-Air (OTA) TV signals. The Tuner Data will help overcome this blindspot by creating an industry-wide solution for local TV markets regardless of size, the company said.

More specifically, the new solution builds on Inscape’s ACR technology that is always running to identify content and commercials on the TV screen. The new Tuner Data will layer on additional data points collected directly from built-in televisions tuners to supplement exposure signals for smaller markets. This also marks a major step forward in accurately capturing the audiences of smaller subnets, Inscape said,

As part of TV Tech’s series of articles on the upcoming trends for 2024, Dan Slivjanovski, CMO of the media measurement company DoubleVerify made a number of predictions for CTV advertising that include increased open measurement adoption and video level transparency at scale. 

Here are his thoughts: 

Prediction #1: Increased Open Measurement Adoption

Since its inception, CTV advertising has faced limitations due to the unique nature of the environment. According to DV data, for example, one-third of CTV impressions serve in environments that play ads and fire impressions long after the TV is turned off, making viewability an important CTV metric. 

To help address these issues, the IAB released open measurement for Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Android TV devices. Open measurement allows providers to access more robust device-level viewability and attention signals which provides more granular, impression-level measurement. 

Although open measurement was released for CTV in the summer of 2022, it’s taken time for suppliers and app publishers to adopt the technology. DV predicts that early adopters will begin supporting open measurement in 2024. 

Open measurement unlocks: full cross-screen viewability measurement using the same underlying expectations and specifications across CTV, mobile and desktop environments; exactly how many ads serve partially off-screen or to TVs that are turned off; audio and AVOC measurement; the ability to transact on viewable impressions in CTV, which is already a common billable metric on desktop and mobile; and measurement and reporting based on customized viewability standards

Prediction #2: Video-Level Brand Safety and Suitability Solutions

According to our own study, two-thirds of consumers are likely to stop using a brand or product if their ads are played next to false, objectionable or inflammatory content. Advertisers have seen or experienced the cost of neglecting brand safety and suitability standards across the board, and these challenges can extend to CTV. To give advertisers more transparency and control over the CTV environments in which their ads play, a number of brand safety and suitability solutions have been released. 

Many verification providers have chosen one of two routes: 

App-level suitability, with current industry-level limitations, provides the most scale and ability to create brand suitability solutions that allow advertisers to control their suitability settings. Although, it lacks granularity at the channel or episode level. 

Video-level suitability can provide more granular data, such as network, channel and rating, but is often only available from small suppliers that don’t have much traffic. Video-level suitability also isn’t typically verified independently and can miss larger-scale suitability issues which can best be detected at the app level with the industry’s current capabilities. Because of this, video-level suitability data won’t provide the average advertiser with as much insight into the brand suitability of their ad environments at this time. 

The industry still has a long way to go before CTV can reach parity with the data granularity available on other devices and platforms. Larger publishers and distributors need to provide video-level data access to third-party verification providers at scale to provide the transparency that advertisers want. With video-level suitability data becoming a bigger priority for advertisers, though, DV predicts that it will become more widely available beginning in 2024.

Prediction #3: The Growth of Attention Measurement in CTV

To prove that an ad campaign produced a return on investment, advertisers need to measure its performance on every platform. But this has been challenging on CTV due to the lack of available KPIs to measure performance and optimize outcomes. As a proxy, most CTV advertisers currently optimize campaigns based on cost. However, this presents a challenge when most advertisers are already purchasing inventory at the lowest prices when buying directly from publishers or private marketplaces (PMPs). For this reason, advertisers have been especially overdue for a solution to better gauge impact on this channel.

A key part of evaluating advertiser impact is measuring audience attention, and this consideration is extended to CTV. In fact, research shows that only 30 percent of CTV ads garner two or more seconds of eyes-on-screen attention, which makes attention a critical metric to track and monitor on CTV.  

With the increased demand and general advancement of CTV viewability measurement technology, the development of granular attention measurement for CTV continues to be an industry priority. DV predicts CTV attention measurement will become more widely available and see increased adoption in 2024.

BELLEVUE, Wash. & DALLAS, Texas—iSpot has announced a major deal with the Camelot Strategic Marketing & Media agency that will make iSpot the preferred video measurement platform for Camelot’s clients. 

iSpot is billing the agreement as a “first-of-its-kind partnership” between iSpot and an agency. In the past, iSpot has worked directly with brands, building up a brand-direct business for 600+ brands, including 85% of TVs top 50 advertisers. 

The new agreement gives Camelot’s brand partners the ability to utilize iSpot’s suite of TV ad measurement products, including unified cross-platform and verified streaming capabilities, which utilize on-screen ad verification, de-duplication of audiences and co-viewing metrics for hundreds of streaming publishers and platforms. iSpot also powers cross-platform, incremental measurement for all market-leading DSPs, the company said. 

“Camelot has established itself as an agency willing to drive its business and transaction strategies based on the unique KPIs and needs of its customers, which puts us squarely in alignment,” said Jodie McAfee, senior vice president of agency partnerships at iSpot. “By utilizing iSpot’s core solutions, Camelot clients will have at their fingertips fully transparent, complete and more accurate results in order to stay ahead of this dynamic and ever-changing marketplace.”

The deal also provides Camelot the ability to easily provision iSpot’s full-funnel measurement performance tools, which include second-by-second attention measurement for every creative, real-time competitive intelligence, business outcomes and conversion tracking, the companies said. 

In doing so, Camelot’s brand partners — which often have individual and unique strategies to drive ROI — will be able to leverage iSpot’s unparalleled suite of flexible measurement products in order to justify and optimize investments based on the metrics that matter to each brand and product to achieve optimal business results, the companies explained. 

“iSpot offers tremendous speed and transparency in the increasingly complex TV marketplace, which not only enables brands to transact using faster, more accurate data, it enables our customers to start transacting against the KPIs that are most important to them,” said Sam Bloom, CEO of Camelot Strategic Marketing & Media. “At Camelot, empowering our brand customers to access and evaluate every moment of every ad, from the creative development process through business outcomes, will give us the radical transparency we need in order to help them achieve their unique business goals.”

NEW YORK—Nielsen has announced a multi-year data license renewal agreement with Comcast Corporation that will give it access to Comcast’s return path data (RPD).

The agreement expands Nielsen's big data footprint to nearly 45 million homes. 

 "We are delighted to extend our strategic partnership with Comcast allowing us to continue to embrace the power of big data for our services both locally across nearly 100 markets and nationally with addressable measurement," said Karthik Rao, CEO of Audience Measurement, Nielsen. "This agreement dually reinforces the importance big data plays in our work and Nielsen's deep commitment to delivering accurate measurement that helps our clients make informed decisions in an increasingly complex media landscape."

 "Measurement is one of the foremost, complex and dynamic topics in TV advertising today and in order to continue to move the needle forward on progress and change, we need to work together to address, reconcile and resolve current industry challenges on this front," added Marcien Jenckes, managing director, Comcast Advertising. "Our announcement with Nielsen today is the latest proof point and step forward in that journey and we look forward to more continued momentum and innovation in the future."

It is expected that the expansion of Nielsen's measurement using Comcast RPD will be introduced into the market in 2024.

As part of the new agreement, Nielsen will expand its use of Comcast's return path data (RPD) in its national and local television and cross-media measurement services via its de-duplicated, audience measurement solution, Nielsen One. Nielsen will also broaden its use of Comcast RPD for local TV measurement across all of the 94 media markets the two companies share. 

The two companies also reported that the agreement will produce a number of benefits for the industry in terms of data and analytics: 

• Integrating Comcast's RPD alongside Nielsen's panel data will significantly enhance Nielsen's ability to comprehensively measure audiences across platforms and devices, including enabling linear addressable measurement for Nielsen's National TV service.
• The inclusion of RPD from Comcast expands Nielsen's current big data footprint to nearly 45 million households. This increased scale in audience coverage allows Nielsen customers to tap into sophisticated measurement and insights of fragmented and diverse audiences, enabling smarter decisions around campaign spend and optimization.
• This agreement will also further enable increased measurement fidelity in the largest local markets while allowing programmers and agencies to gain insight into advanced audiences across platforms.
• Additionally, programmers and agencies can take advantage of addressable ads reconciled with Nielsen's C3 commercial ratings measurement offering to optimize inventory and ad spend
• From a macro perspective, this agreement reinforces both companies' continued commitment to driving measurement innovation and delivering the most accurate measurement data in today's evolving media and marketing landscape.

RESTON, Va.—Comscore has announced an agreement with WBNX-TV, an independent station focused on serving the Cleveland and Akron communities, that will see WBNX use Comscore's local TV currency as an additional source to sell and post advertising buys.

"Comscore's local measurement provides WBNX and our advertisers the ability to see the true viewing behaviors from our community," said Lori Bruch, WBNX general manager. "With Comscore's consistent and reliable data set, we are confident that we will be able to attract more advertisers and that we will be able to showcase our audience strengths like never before."

The agreement comes in the wake of Comscore’s recently announced expansion of its "Pulse" TV measurement solution, which provides agencies, brands and media companies with 48-hour TV measurement nationally and in all 210 U.S. local media markets. 

SAN FRANCISCO—Samba TV has announced today it is working with Epsilon, which is part of the Publicis Groupe, to integrate Samba TV’s OTT and linear television viewing data into Epsilon PeopleCloud. Samba TV’s U.S. viewership insights are sourced from 10 diverse television manufacturers (24 globally). 

The integration will provide Epsilon clients with granular insights into customers’ TV and streaming TV viewing to guide their media buying strategies. 

“Epsilon is a preeminent identity and audience provider to many of the world’s largest marketers,” said Kris Magel, head of enterprise solutions at Samba TV. “Their integration of Samba TV’s rich and representative viewing dataset will offer Epsilon and Publicis clients a deep understanding of the modern viewing behaviors of their  customers, as opposed to age/gender proxies. Epsilon and Publicis will also be the first agency holding company to build and deploy Samba TV Behavioral Audiences connected to Epsilon’s CORE ID on a self-serve basis, across all addressable media channels and partners.”

“Every marketer is searching for valid and representative views of today’s modern viewing behaviors to understand their current customers better and build new relationships with future customers,” added Kate Sirkin, executive vice president global data partnerships at Epsilon.

“Connecting CORE ID with Samba TV’s wealth of linear and OTT viewing data will enable sophisticated customer viewing insights and more versatile planning and targeting solutions for our clients across all major categories. In a time where we must optimize every dollar, our partnership with Samba TV supports our vision to have a full, 360-degree view of customers and prospects with which to better guide media spend to achieve growth in the most effective way possible.” 

NEW YORK—Hallmark Media has inked a deal with EDO to provide measurement insights focusing on the Hallmark Channel and Hallmark Movies & Mysteries’ original scripted series and tentpole movie programming events – including Countdown to Christmas, New Year New Movies!, and Loveuary, and mystery franchises.

“With our programming consistently delivering strong results, we are always looking for innovative solutions to further demonstrate the impact of our brand,” said Ed Georger, executive vice president of ad sales and digital media. “EDO’s granular, real-time insights will significantly help us reinforce the true value our audience brings to our advertising partners.”

EDO analyzes real-time consumer behavioral data to help advertisers and publishers understand how and where ads generate interest with viewers. Hallmark will continue leveraging EDO to deliver ad outcomes and immediate proof-of-performance insights for custom integrations during Hallmark programming.

“Hallmark is known for its storied seasonal movies, and we’ve only just begun uncovering actionable performance insights for both the network and its advertisers,” said Kevin Krim, president and CEO at EDO. “Hallmark joins the ranks of leading media companies who value predictive outcomes that go beyond basic reach metrics.”

Data from the agreement is already showing that Hallmark consistently performs in the top 20% of linear cable network ad performance, per EDO data, with a noted increase in engagement in Q4 year-over-year. The network’s Countdown to Christmas primetime movie programming, which begins in October, launched Hallmark into the top 10% of cable networks in Q4 2022, according to EDO.

EDO is also reporting that ads during Hallmark movie premieres and new series episodes are 52% more likely to engage viewers than during the average Hallmark program.

Other insights from the measurement partnership include: 

• Countdown to Christmas programming accounted for 96% of Hallmark’s top-performing primetime programs in Q4 2022. The most engaging holiday themed Hallmark Channel movie in Q4 was Making Spirits Bright, which performed 79% better than the cable average for a primetime movie in Q4.
• New Year, New Movies! programming saw The Wedding Veil trilogy debut on Hallmark in January. The Wedding Veil Journey was the most likely to drive consumer engagement, outperforming the average Hallmark primetime program by 32%.
• Loveuary, Hallmark’s romance-filled February programming, kicked off with the Sweeter Than Chocolate movie premiere on February 4. The movie outperformed the average Q1 Hallmark program by almost 60% through mid-February.
• The mid-January premiere of new drama series The Way Home earned a spot in the top five cable primetime programs and continues to generate significant engagement above the average cable program.

BELLEVUE, Wash.—iSpot and Nexstar’s The CW have announced that the network will use iSpot to measure cross-platform premium video campaigns and sponsorships associated with the 2023 LIV Golf Tournament across linear and digital properties.

“As LIV Golf continues to, literally, change the game, so too is Nexstar Media Group, alongside The CW, revolutionizing the way content and advertising is transacted upon," said Michael Strober, executive vice president and chief revenue officer, Nexstar Media Group. "With an innovative approach to sponsorship opportunities for brands and advertisers, LIV Golf on the CW will be an immersive, omnichannel advertising opportunity in ways the industry really hasn’t seen before. With this unprecedented integration of experiential omnichannel activations across digital and linear, as well as traditional and offline channels, we needed a measurement provider who could keep pace with our innovative approach to consumer monetization and we found one in iSpot.”

iSpot, which has made currency deals with multiple networks for testing and deployment over the last year, will provide its leading cross-platform audience and advertising measurement solutions to calculate the reach, frequency, average minute audience and impact of viewers and campaigns of the LIV Golf Tournament on Nextar-operated CW stations, as well as the CW app.

“We are really excited about the potential of what bringing premium sports programming like the LIV Golf League to The CW’s core consumers can do for both of these forward-thinking companies,” said Stuart Schwartzapfel, executive vice president of media partnerships, iSpot TV. “Providing The CW, LIV Golf and the industry as a whole with best-in-class, cross-screen measurement will allow brands to identify and capitalize on premiere audiences and the CW to monetize these consumers in a way other legacy and upstart media measurement providers – some that continue to profit off media arbitrage strategies – fall needlessly short.”

NEW YORK—In a notable example of how media companies and industry players are focusing on finding better measurement solutions, The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) has announced that it has greatly expanded its membership base, with 26 companies joining the Coalition as members in the last year. 

The addition of these new companies reflects growth of more than 50% in membership under Jon Watts, who took on the role of CIMM’s Managing Director in 2022.

“The media and advertising industries are changing rapidly, presenting both challenges and opportunities for participants across the market,” said Watts. “We believe that inclusive collaboration and cooperation are critical, to support the development of improvements and innovations that support the entire industry. CIMM is evolving and is working hard to support the industry in new ways – and we’re pleased to welcome so many companies to our Coalition to help us as we set out to expand our program, grow our team, develop major new initiatives, and support progress across the industry.”

The new members include:

• Amplified Intelligence
• AppScience
• Arima
• Blockgraph
• Cross Screen Media
• DIRECTV Advertising
• EDO
• FreeWheel
• Gamut
• Globo
• HyphaMetrics
• InfoSum
• IRIS.TV
• LG Ad Solutions
• Magnite
• Nielsen
• Numeris
• Philo
• Qonsent
• Samba TV
• Samsung Ads
• Scripps Networks
• The Weather Group
• Tvbeat
• TVision
• World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc. (WWE)

CIMM is a non-partisan, pan-industry not-for-profit Coalition of companies from across the media and advertising ecosystem, working together to support improvements, best practices and innovations in measurement, new metrics and the use of data across the ecosystem, the group said.

CIMM works to support the entire industry, working closely and collaboratively with other leading trade bodies and industry organizations, while remaining committed to the Advertising Research Foundation’s principles of objectivity, evidence-based research, and scientific rigor.

“As founding members of CIMM, we know it’s important for the organization’s membership to grow and reflect a variety of fresh perspectives,” said Andrea Zapata, executive vice president, head of Ad Sales Research, Measurement and Insights, Warner Bros. Discovery and CIMM Steering Committee member. “While CIMM’s mission remains ironclad, the spirit of collaboration is rejuvenated with dynamic expertise. We will work with our new partners to explore and identify innovative ways to solve the challenges we face across the fragmented media landscape, for the benefit of advertisers, audiences and publishers alike.”

“We’re delighted to see CIMM’s membership base continuing to grow, as the work of the Coalition expands to support the wider TV and video ecosystem,” said Bharad Ramesh, executive director, Research & Investment Analytics at GroupM and CIMM Steering Committee member. “New members create new opportunities for dialogue, collaboration and coordination, and support CIMM’s mission to cultivate innovations, improvements and best practices in measurement, new metrics and the use of data across the buy- and sell-sides of the industry.”

“This expanded roster of members will be invaluable in advancing our collective mission to drive progress and clarity in measurement for the greater good of the entire industry,” said Colleen Fahey Rush, executive vice president and chief research officer, Paramount. “We are proud to be a part of the incredible growth of the Coalition as they continue to foster opportunities for partnership and collaboration.”

In addition to membership growth, CIMM launched multiple programming and research-driven initiatives such as the International Knowledge Exchange on Audience Measurement, Metrics and Data with egta, EACA and WFA, and a joint study with the 4A’s and ANA that explored perspectives and experiences to develop practical recommendations in support of a successful transition toward a multi-currency TV market, among others, the group said. 

For more information visit www.cimm-us.org

NEW YORK—IAB Tech Lab, the global digital advertising technical standard-setting body, has laid out its key priorities and roadmap for 2023, with a product roadmap that includes consumer privacy, addressability and privacy enhancing technologies (PETs), advanced TV, ad supply chain, and cross-media measurement. 

"We are heading into a transformative year for the digital advertising sector where interoperability, transparency, and scalability will be imperative," said Anthony Katsur, CEO of IAB Tech Lab. "Tech Lab has a critical responsibility to ensure that the industry works together to tackle these issues head-on. These priorities ensure that buyers and sellers can effectively work together to reach consumers efficiently, placing privacy and sustainability at the forefront."

More specifically, the group said its priorities in each of the five areas were:

• Privacy. There is a proliferation of new privacy regulations around the world with an impact on how businesses operate and potential fines for non-compliance. IAB Tech Lab will continue its consumer privacy-related work in 2023 by expanding on the Global Privacy Platform, a comprehensive and secure consent signaling framework across multiple jurisdictions providing global controls. The international trade body also plans to establish a Data Subject Rights Signaling Framework (providing consumers the ability to access, delete, and modify their data across the digital advertising supply chain). The Tech Lab will also release the Accountability Platform, a technical accountability framework designed to provide transparency on using personal data for addressability for regulatory audit and compliance. Lastly, IAB Tech Lab will release a list of best practices and guidance for the privacy-safe use of other technical standards, the group said. 
• Addressability and Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs). In early 2022, IAB Tech Lab announced the newly formed Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) Working Group, inviting the digital advertising community to develop privacy-enhancing standards and software tools. This year, IAB Tech Lab will continue to facilitate post-cookie and privacy-first addressability for audience activation and measurement by creating a portfolio of privacy-safe addressability solutions, updating Tech Lab's industry taxonomies, and publishing technical standards for Clean Rooms, the group said. 
• Advanced TV. After spending 2022 analyzing converging use cases between legacy and connected television and understanding the trajectory of TV viewing and media investment, IAB Tech Lab released a multi-year advanced TV roadmap. Tech Lab's goal is to modernize the fragmented TV landscape and bring universal addressability, reconciliation, and measurement interoperability to all TV environments. In 2023, led by the newly created Advanced TV Commit Group, Tech Lab will work across the television industry to drive the adoption of an open video watermark standard, supporting technical framework and best practices to achieve standardization across the diverse environments and devices consumers use to watch TV. The Advanced TV initiative will enable the industry to achieve interoperability, improve measurement, and bring greater efficiency to a converging TV landscape. Additional use cases in the roadmap include frame-accurate ad insertion, cross-environment addressability, and universal reconciliation and audit while enabling viewability verification across TV environments, the group said. 
• Ad Supply Chain & Programmatic Foundations. Building on efforts to promote a secure, flexible supply chain in 2022, IAB Tech Lab will announce plans at this year's Annual Leadership Meeting (ALM) to support a green, programmatic supply chain for all digital advertising media. IAB Tech Lab will also work to establish a secure and authenticated supply path from device to demand, a faster and more extensible Open RTB release process, and enhance the Transparency Center, while evolving industry support tools and open source projects, the IAB explained. 
• Measurement. Emerging technologies and new media formats in the digital advertising ecosystem are wonderful opportunities for advertisers to innovate. They also breed inefficiencies in ad delivery and fragmentation in measurement capabilities. The proliferation of devices, platforms, and channels are drivers of complexity and opportunity. In 2023, IAB Tech Lab will continue working to establish consistent cross-media, cross-channel, cross-environment campaign measurement and viewability verification. Tech Lab's ongoing investment in technical measurement standards includes updates to Open Measurement Interface Definition and Open Measurement SDKs to ensure continued support of all mobile/web video and CTV via the newly released OMSDK for CTV, the IAB said. 

NEW YORK—Nielsen has finally announced a firm launch date for its long-awaited cross-platform Nielsen One Ads measurement system, which is now scheduled to go live on Jan. 11. 

The system is designed to provide a consistent, comparable and deduplicated measurement of viewing of ads across screens. It will be initially available in the U.S.

The launch comes at a time when the media industry has been pushing for better cross platform measurement and experimenting with a wide variety of measurement systems and currencies for selling ads. 

Nielsen argues that Nielsen One Ads will allow advertisers, brands and publishers to be able to understand reach and frequency, deduplicated across linear TV, connected TV, desktop, and mobile. 

“Audiences today control what they watch, when they watch, and how they watch it. As the media landscape becomes more varied and complicated, Nielsen is committed to working with the industry to bring clarity and simplicity to media buying and selling through Nielsen One,” said Karthik Rao, CEO, audience measurement, Nielsen. “By combining the scale of big data and granular insights from our people-based panel, Nielsen One provides comprehensive, representative measurement of ads and content for our clients to transact with confidence.”

In addition to its standard metrics across platforms, Nielsen One Ads will introduce impact data for more granular linear television measurement, calculating audiences at the second level rather than today’s industry standard of minute level audiences, Nielsen said. This will provide the industry with greater comparably across television and digital platforms.

Nielsen One Ads will also deliver “always on” metrics for digital campaigns and insights. The systems uses Nielsen One’s proprietary ID system as well as data from Nielsen’s panels. Further, direct publisher integrations, across walled-gardens will provide an understanding of true persons-level campaign impressions, Nielsen reported. 

In addition to Nielsen One Ads, Nielsen recently introduced Nielsen One Content Alpha that will be available this year, which provides cross platform, deduplicated and syndicated content metrics across devices. 

Together, Nielsen One Ads and Content will bridge current measurement capabilities, both linear and digital, into a single system, Nielsen said. They will allow advertisers and publishers to plan and transact using a single metric across linear and digital.

NEW YORK—In a notable advance in the industry’s longstanding efforts to measure how well ads actually impact sales and the objectives of a marketing campaign, the Media Rating Council (MRC) has released the final version of its Outcomes and Data Quality Standards. 

The document is the end result of a project led by  MRC that included a working group representing over 100 organizations from across the advertising and media industries, with the endorsement of the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), the 4As, and the Association of Canadian Advertisers (ACA). 

The Standards address various Outcomes measures and approaches, including attribution and  Multi-Touch Attribution, Market Mix Modeling, and experiments, as well as the underlying data  quality associated with these methods. 

“These standards represent the realization of a new and critical phase of a long-term effort by  MRC, in cooperation with other industry trade associations, to enhance advertising  measurement,” noted MRC executive director and CEO George W. Ivie. “This initiative began  more than a decade ago with projects designed to standardize measures of ad delivery, and has  now progressed to the measurement of business outcomes that are associated with ad exposure.” 

“With marketers increasingly looking to outcomes as the primary determinant of ad spend  effectiveness, it is critical that the industry has a clear set of standards against which providers of  attribution measurement can be assessed,” added ANA group executive vice president Bill Tucker. “Of particular  importance, these Standards were developed in conjunction with marketers, ensuring that they  represent and address our needs. ANA members have called for the development of outcome  standards as an industry priority, and we are pleased to have supported and participated in this  significant endeavor.” 

“With commercial performance and outcome-based compensation models becoming more  mainstream, the creation of these Standards offers a roadmap for the requirements around data  collection for advertisers and marketers,” says Ashwini Karandikar, executive vice president media, tech and data at the 4As.. “This framework is an important baseline because it enables independent, validated  data to be more consistently measured and connected to outcomes.” 

The release follows a public comment period on a draft version of the document that occurred  over the Summer. Feedback from comments received was considered, and, in certain instances,  incorporated, although the substance of the final version does not differ significantly from the  earlier draft. 

Key provisions include: 

• Outcomes analyzed, associated or attributed to media and advertising activities should be  relevant, logical and aligned with user goals, while supported by consistent definitions and approaches.  
• Intent must be directly observable or inferred based on behavior using empirically  supported approaches.
• Interactions with ads and content must be clearly defined and empirically supported.
• A base of viewable impressions is required as an option for attribution of Outcomes; SIVT filtration is also required.
• The source and nature of datasets must be generally disclosed to users along with details  of collection parameters, editing and cleaning applied as well as known biases or  limitations associated to it.
• Care must be taken to properly disclose the methodology for measuring and reporting  ROI and ROAS and inferences associated with them.
• These Standards encourage Cross-Media coverage for measurement of ad and media exposure, but do not require all measures of Outcomes to include Cross-Media  measurement.
• Viewability should not be used to imply presence of a user or that an ad has been  viewed/seen.
• Outcomes measurement providers should consider Advertising Exposure or contact by  the consumer as well as their Attention or impact for any audience if causality is to be  assessed.
• Single-touch attribution use cases are generally limited to a specific campaign  objective/product type. 
• The process and support for determining which exposures are attributed and the weights  or values assigned to them must be robust and demonstrable for audit purposes of MTA  methodologies. 
• The results of RCT exercises and non-experimental methodologies must be treated as  estimates and must adhere to statistical and sample-based requirements of the MRC  Minimum Standards.

“With the issuance of these final Standards, the ad industry now has detailed provisions against  which outcome based measurement can be vetted against,” says Judy Davey, vice president,  media policy and marketing capabilities, the ACA. “We encourage all providers of attribution  to seek accreditation against the MRC Standards, as this will be a key factor in helping to  advance the use of outcome based measurement and enable innovation. The ACA is delighted to  provide our endorsement to these Standards.” 

The Standards can be found at www.mediaratingcouncil.org. Those who wish to learn more  about the MRC accreditation process can contact MRC at staff@mediaratingcouncil.org. 

RESTON, Va.—Comscore has announced that the Fox Television Stations (FTS) will use Comscore’s data to  support transactions on advanced audiences across the footprint of the owned and operated station group. 

“Over the last six years, the number of reportable Comscore households across Fox Television Station’s markets have grown by 84% to 13.6 MM [million] homes,” said Tom Fleming, senior vice president of station sales at Fox Television Stations. “By partnering with Comscore for local TV measurement, FTS can now use significantly larger data sets and even more precision to ensure that linear advertisers are strategically paired with their consumers.”

Comscore competes with Nielsen in measuring viewing and in recent years has been picking up clients among local broadcasters.

Comscore local TV solution combines real-world TV viewership information with advanced household-level consumer and demographic behavior data, allowing buyers and sellers to access relevant metrics and transact with confidence, Comscore said. 

“Because local television audiences have more choices than ever, measurement must evolve to include larger data sets,“ said Chad Roscher, vice president, research, Fox Television Stations. “As such, Fox Television Stations is excited to partner with Comscore for local TV measurement, which incorporates millions of data points from key video providers.”

“Comscore has a long history of innovating the way media is bought and sold, and we are proud to partner with FTS to bring increased value to their expansive footprint,” said Carol Hinnant, chief revenue officer, Comscore. “FTS is getting ahead of the pack to ensure their advertisers have access to the most advanced offerings that local TV can provide.”

RESTON, Va.—Comscore has signed a multi-year agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group to deploy its Comscore Consumer Intelligence (CCI) offering across its sales organization.

Comscore Consumer Intelligence unifies Comscore’s local linear and digital search data with near real-time shopper insights from Consumer Orbit, a consumer science company specializing in understanding consumers and their shopping behaviors, across all local markets down to the ZIP-code level.

The integration of the data will enable the Sinclair Broadcast Group to reach real-world customers and qualified prospects effectively and efficiently through consumer-based selling, the companies said. 

CCI delivers a cross-platform comparison of local television and digital audience consumption, allowing both sell- and buy-side clients to match impressions delivered by linear and digital partners with actual customers and consumers in their pre-purchase shopping cycle, Comscore said. 

Through a better understanding of the relative audience delivery effectiveness of linear television compared to social media or digital entertainment content in local markets, station sales teams can realize greater positioning and sales strategy effectiveness, Comscore said. 

CCI’s shopping intelligence data is updated monthly and based on latent, observed and deterministically collected consumer engagements, not small samples of self-reported behavior. CCI allows users to define custom geography, or trade areas, to better align business opportunity measures with linear and digital audience activity.

“CCI provides information that unifies audiences across platforms so that a single definition of the customer can be presented to our clients, rather than mixed targets across multiple silos,” says Jay Huckabay, president and CEO of Consumer Orbit. “This will drive both efficiency and effectiveness in advertising, yielding more successful results for both the buy and sell side.”

“Comscore has supplemented its local television currency with a consumer-focused, rather than demographic focused offering that provides in-market consumer shopping behavior. This allows television to more effectively compete with digital giants that have siphoned media dollars from television,” says Carol Hinnant, chief revenue officer, Comscore. “We are excited to be partnered with Consumer Orbit to bring this innovated offering to market.”

WASHINGTON D.C.—The FCC has unanimously adopted a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to update its rules to ensure TV stations and pay TV providers are using the same data to determine which stations are “local” in retransmission consent negotiations.  

The Commission’s current rules require that local television stations seeking carriage on a pay TV system must determine their local market by reference to the Nielsen annual Station Index Directory in combination with the Nielsen Station Index United States Television Household Estimates. 

Nielsen has announced, however, that those publications are no longer being produced. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking would remove these Nielsen publications from the FCC rules, and replace them with Nielsen’s monthly Local TV Station Information Report. 

Chairwoman Rosenworcel, commissioners Carr, Starks, and Simington approved the changes. 

But Republican commissioner Nathan Simington issued a lengthy statement calling into question the FCC's overall use of Nielsen data and stated that “I therefore believe the Commission should open a notice of inquiry related to Nielsen’s inclusion in nearly two dozen Commission rules and the Commission’s reliance on Nielsen data.”

Chairwoman Rosenworcel did not respond to the idea of examining the wider use of Niesen data. 

“We are taking note of the fact that the law provides us with the opportunity to consider a `successor publication’ in the event the original Nielsen publication is no longer available,” she wrote in a separate statement. “This rulemaking kicks off that effort.”

Simington noted that problems with Nielsen’s data has resulted in Nielsen losing accreditation with the MRC. While he expressed confidence that Nielsen would resolve those problems, he raised a point many broadcasters have been making for years—namely that they need better measurement tools to compete with tech giants who have been grabbing a larger share of audiences. 

“The broadcast industry has been losing to online platforms in the advertising competition,” Simington said. “Of course, there are reasons for this outside of the accuracy and completeness of audience analytics—the secular trend of media consumption is toward online platforms, which drives the advertising dollar.  Okay, sure.  But is it not at least worth taking into account that among the considerations that advertisers—especially small businesses—cite for doing online advertising is the high trust they place in granular audience analytics?”

Noting that the FCC referenced Nielsen in 23 of their rules, Simington concluded that: “If there are opportunities to identify or generate new sources of broadcast data, we should take them. If there are improvements to be made in our usage of broadcast data, we should make them. And if our ties to Nielsen ultimately represent a structural impediment to the public interest, necessity, and convenience—we should break them.”

BELLEVUE, Wash., NEW YORK & TEL AVIV—TV measurement company iSpot has announced that it is expanding its cross-platform viewing verification capabilities with the acquisition of Tunity, the TV-viewing solutions and analytics company that measures consumer viewing habits in public locations nationwide.

Tunity offers out of home measurement of TV viewing in bars, restaurants, gyms, universities, waiting rooms, doctors’ offices, airports and more. 

Modeling viewing behavior from hundreds of thousands of individuals in the U.S., Tunity estimates out-of-home viewing can account for upwards of 100 million hours per day, representing a highly attractive audience of viewers that are more likely to have disposable income and be actively spending on recreation, the companies said. 

“The existing ratings models have proven to woefully misrepresent viewership in public spaces, which has an impact on the business models for the buy and sell side,” said Sean Muller, CEO and founder at iSpot. “iSpot’s acquisition of Tunity will enable us to meet a massive demand in the marketplace with a more unified, independent measurement system that tracks audience consumption of ads and programming on a second-by-second basis, across platforms and viewing experiences.” 

In addition to integrating the Tunity Analytics capabilities into its full-funnel measurement stack, iSpot is picking up a series of patents and expanding its technical operations with engineering resources from Tel Aviv, Israel that include expertise in next-generation deep/machine learning, cloud computing and computer-vision capabilities. 

The group will continue to be led by Tunity founder Yaniv Davidson.

“iSpot and Tunity share a similar DNA in that both organizations were purpose-built to solve massive structural problems in measurement using patented technologies and real-time solutions,” said Davidson. “We’re excited to combine the strength of our technologies, the passion of our engineers to bring smarter solutions to the marketplace. Our success is a benefit for advertisers and networks, but it also delivers palpable benefits to consumers.” 

Along with a core group of engineers, Tunity head of research and analytics Paul Lindstrom, a 40-year out of home measurement veteran will retain his role within iSpot. 

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. 

NEW YORK—NBCUniversal has announced a multi-year landmark deal with iSpot.tv that will make the real-time measurement company one of its preferred partners for quantifying and unifying cross-screen media consumption, reach and impressions across its One Platform. 

The new deal is part of a major effort by NBCUniversal to bring advertisers more accurate, timely and diverse insights that capture the way audiences consume content and use this broad array of performance metrics to modernize the way video is valued, NBCU said. 

The agreement comes on the heels of an extensive measurement evaluation process and industry consultation that will lay a new foundation for how NBCUniversal transacts in the 2022-2023 upfront cycle, the company said. 

As part of that effort to find better measurement systems, iSpot.tv has been named NBCU's first cross-platform Video Certified Measurement Partner, the companies said, with more expected to be announced in the future. 

“This is not a shift away from one panel-based system to another, but a definitive step toward embracing the metrics brands already use to evaluate media companies,” said Kelly Abcarian, executive vice president, measurement and impact, NBCUniversal Advertising and Partnerships. “We have an obligation to deliver consumers a great experience, and an obligation to our customers and shareholders to utilize measurement systems that adequately capture the reach, attention, and outcomes we deliver. Our learnings from this partnership will help transform our measurement solutions as we head into the next Upfront season and bring advertisers more data that accurately reflects our audiences, their consumption habits and campaign impact.” 

As part of the agreement, iSpot.tv will support NBCUniversal’s audience verification initiatives for both ads and program ratings and conduct tests of an alternative currency in the first quarter of 2022. 

These currency tests will include a massive pilot during two of the most anticipated events of the year – the 2022 Olympic Winter Games and the Super Bowl LVI – which will be conducted in collaboration with a range of clients across several verticals. 

Publicis Media will be the first media holding company to test this new measurement across NBCUniversal’s entire One Platform, and utilize these tools to support multiple brands, the companies said. 

iSpot.tv, which provides second-by-second measurement for ads and verified impressions for programming and advertising, will deliver metrics that can be used as an alternative currency across buyers and sellers. 

Using iSpot.tv, brands who advertise with NBCU will gain access to real-time airing data for linear, streaming and time-shifted viewing, and receive comprehensive reports on a next-day basis that include metrics such as verified ad impressions, reach and frequency, linear and streaming overlap and incrementality. Measurement will be provided at the household level as well as at the person level for age/gender demos and/or for customized audience segments. 

Select NBCU advertisers will also have access to impact measurement including granular attention and interruption rates, business-outcome reporting and creative performance that includes pre-testing and brand-lift analysis, NBCU reported. 

“Measurement must reflect the all screen, one video world consumers have created,” said John Muszynski, chairman, Publicis Media Exchange (PMX) US. “Through this test-and-learn across NBCUniversal’s One Platform, PMX will be able to provide its portfolio of brands a more accurate, holistic approach to measurement that prioritizes performance and impact. The results of this partnership will serve as the blueprint for the marketplace to transact using improved measurement during the 2022-2023 Upfront Cycle.” 

NBCU and iSpot.tv have a long history of collaboration. NBCU was among the first networks to subscribe to verified impressions data when iSpot.tv became the first company to commercialize smart TV data in a measurement application in 2014. And the two partnered again in 2018 to bring business-outcome TV measurement to market. 

BERLIN—Netflix lost market share in the third quarter of 2021 but remains by far the largest steaming service in the U.S., according to new data from JustWatch. 

The new Q3 data showed that Netflix remained the largest streamer in the U.S., with a 27% market share, followed by Amazon Prime Video (21%), Disney+ (14%), Hulu (13%), HBO Max (10%), Apple TV+ (4%), Showtime (2%) and other services (9%). 

While HBO Max and Apple remained far behind their rivals, HBO Max had the strongest Q3 after demonstrating significant month over month growth since July 2021, JustWatch reported.

Apple TV+, meanwhile, has been growing steadily since February.

JustWatch is an international streaming guide that helps over 20 million users per month to find something great to watch on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, etc. across 60 countries. The data is based on the interest its users show in streaming services. 

More information is available at https://www.justwatch.com

LOS ANGELES—As the industry searches for new measurement systems amid frustration with Nielsen, VideoAmp has announced a partnership with ViacomCBS that will provide the media and entertainment company with an alternative currency to plan, transact and measure national media campaigns. 

“The measurement marketplace needs diversification,” said John Halley, chief operating officer of Advertising Revenue at ViacomCBS. “VideoAmp is an innovator who can help us accelerate our vision around the future of currency. We’re excited to leverage their platform to bring better insights and better measurement to advertisers and their agencies.” 

As a result of the agreement, ViacomCBS will leverage VideoAmp’s proprietary commingled TV viewership dataset to guarantee linear media transactions against age and gender demographics. 

ViacomCBS will also utilize VideoAmp’s data as an underlying currency to create and guarantee delivery of media campaigns against customized advanced audience segments through Vantage, ViacomCBS’ advanced advertising platform, the companies said. 

The move comes at a time when companies and industry organizations have been calling for a renewed push to build better measurement systems that can provide accurate data on viewing across multiple platforms. It also reflects growing frustration with Nielsen, which is building its own next generation measurement system, Nielsen One.  

Earlier this month, VideoAmp announced pilot programs with six major advertising holding companies as part of their efforts to unite the industry around an alternative independent measurement option.

“We are thrilled to be partnering with ViacomCBS as an alternative currency as they go into a new broadcast season,” said Ross McCray, CEO and co-founder of VideoAmp. “We truly value ViacomCBS and their forward-thinking strategy when it comes to a new era of media transaction, measurement and, ultimately, the currency options that power it. We want to unlock value for publishers in a privacy-safe way that keeps their audiences at the forefront, regardless of the channel they’re using,”

NEW YORK—In what could be a major shift in the way local TV viewing is measured and local TV ads are sold, Nielsen has announced an "Impressions First Initiative" to support an industry-wide move to impressions-based buying and selling in local markets across the country.

As a key step in that direction, it will integrate broadband only homes (BBO) into Nielsen's local measurement metrics in January 2022. 

As part of the announcement, some broadcasters, including Nexstar and Hearst, as well as media buying companies backed the move to impressions, which will involve the addition of BBO homes. 

The inclusion of BBO homes will enable the industry to rapidly transition to trading on impressions, Nielsen said, which will represent all viewers regardless of platform. For more than two years, Nielsen has been working with the media and advertising industries in preparation for the inclusion of broadband-only homes in Local TV measurement for its 56 LPM and Set Meter markets, Nielsen said. 

The company also noted that the move to an impressions-based currency will deliver a more complete, precise and representative audience measurement and that the move to impressions will also enable cross-platform audience measurement and lay the groundwork for implementing Nielsen ONE across local, national, and digital measurement. 

"Nielsen is committed to measuring all audiences and the complete video consumption across the local marketplace," said David Kenny, CEO of Nielsen. "Impressions are the great equalizer across all screens, programs, listeners and viewers. Nielsen's move to prioritize reporting impressions will help standardize the way it measures ads and content, enabling greater comparability across National, Local and Digital and is in line with Nielsen's initiative to drive comparable metrics which are foundational to Nielsen ONE."

As part of the announcement, Nexstar Media Group, Inc., the country's largest local broadcasting group, backed the move to impressions-based measurement.

"We believe the move to impressions and the integration of BBO homes into local measurement metrics is critical to making sure that every viewer is counted," said Perry Sook, chairman and CEO, Nexstar Media Group, Inc. "It also enables buyers and sellers to make comparisons across all video across platforms, gives them the most complete view of audience consumption and behavior, and facilitates automated buying." 

"Broadcasters have known for years that our content is being viewed inside and outside the home on many devices and services," said Jordan Wertlieb, president of Hearst Television added. "This move to impression-focused selling is something that will not only allow the most-watched content to get the full credit it deserves, but will also allow our clients to truly see the unique value proposition we offer: the best environment with the largest reach."

"Agencies and advertisers are eager for Nielsen to incorporate BBO homes into local TV samples beginning January 2022," said Bernie Shimkus, vice president, director of research and consumer insights, Harmelin Media. "Over the years, the number of BBO homes has more than tripled in the U.S. from about 3% in 2015 and now accounts for at least 20% of local TV homes today.  The inclusion of BBO homes is essential to local TV measurement and will also facilitate the move to impressions-based buying of local TV."

"As a leader in the transition to impression-based investment for local over the past six years, we at Magna Global support and appreciate Nielsen's prioritization of reporting on impressions," said Kathy Doyle, executive vice president, managing director of local investment, Magna Global. "In moving forward to a more data informed approach whereby we target more representative and inclusive audiences, impressions are absolutely the core building block that we must start with as an industry."

As part of Nielsen's support of an industry-wide move from ratings to impressions in January 2022, Nielsen said it will default its local reporting settings to impressions in its software systems (Arianna, NLTV, eVip) and will lead with impressions in all of its external communications. Ratings will remain available to end-users for planning purposes. 

"Nexstar's sales teams have been working toward the transition to selling impressions in coordination with a number of our largest clients, as it is the best way to make sure that no viewer goes uncounted," said Andrew Alford, president of Broadcasting for Nexstar Media Inc.  "We expect to be transacting on impressions exclusively in early 2022, so Nielsen's decision to implement an impressions-based measurement metric at the same time is a very welcome development."

Nielsen, which had previously announced a BBO implementation date of October 2021, made the final decision to begin implementation in January 2022 in response to industry requests, the company said. 

The new timing will enable Nielsen to publish an official BBO UE that will be audited and reviewed by the Media Rating Council (MRC). In addition to delivering one month of impact data, a January implementation will include all BBO homes. Adding BBO homes will increase reporting sample sizes significantly and capture impressions that may be missing, especially for sports and OTT, Nielsen explained.

Nielsen has been under fire for inaccuracies in its local measurement data and problems with its attempts to add BBO homes has been criticized by the MRC, which pulled Nielsen’s accreditation recently. 

NEW YORK—As a growing number of organizations and companies back efforts to build a next-generation measurement system, the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) has issued a statement outlining some of the principles and requirements advertisers want in a sound media measurement system.

The statement, issued by the ANA on behalf of the ANA Media Leadership Growth Council and ANA’s Cross Media Measurement initiative steering committee noted that their basic principles include the creation of “a measurement system that is objective, independent, transparent, neutral, and third-party verified.” 

“Marketers are committed to the evolution of the very best measurement systems and processes to optimize their media and marketing decision-making,” the ANA said. “These decisions involve billions of dollars of transactions dedicated to the optimization of business and brand performance. With technology and intelligence, the advertising industry needs a more robust measurement ecosystem that delivers on these aspirations.”

The ANA also stressed that the Media Rating Council (MRC) needs to play a central role in the process of creating a better measurement system. 

“We fully support the MRC and its body of work,” the ANA said. “Although the MRC accreditation process and attendant rigor require time and resources, it is an indispensable organization. It is necessary to support and justify the billions of advertising dollars spent annually on paid media. Fiduciary transactions require accurate foundational measurement enabled by the MRC. The ANA stands fully behind the MRC.”

The statement said “the most important measurement priority for marketers is a cross media measurement (CMM) solution built to meet the principles of MRC accreditation.”

“Reflecting the importance of that priority, ANA has been leading an industry steering committee that includes marketers, platforms, and agencies,” the group said. “MRC is advising that committee to ensure that industry standards are met, and the methodologies used are transparent. The 4A’s support this initiative and have committed to joining the CMM steering committee and working in partnership with ANA.  In addition, we are actively working with VAB/Open AP and TV networks and have plans to collaborate on content/context measurement. The ANA also encourages VAB to join the steering team.” 

Calling cross-media measurement “the paramount objective of the measurement community,” the ANA argued that “our industry should channel as much of its resources as possible towards the accomplishment of this goal. ANA has been working on this for two years both globally, in conjunction with the World Federation of Advertisers (WFA), and in the U.S. In the U.S., we are making excellent progress piloting component tests for VID with ComScore, and exploration work with panel providers. Additionally, Input/Output and Data Flow workstreams are progressing towards an end-to-end test design and road maps to a pilot test next year.”

Pointing out that most past efforts to solve these measurement problems have “fallen short of their stated objectives,” the ANA noted that “making meaningful progress now requires a substantial commitment for real change accompanied by a significant pledge of resources to overcome the material barriers that have impeded past progress across the measurement ecosystem.”

Finally, the ANA called for transparency in the process. “The standards adopted must be made available for consideration by every advertiser, regardless of its individual spend on media,” it said. “This is necessary to insure an open and transparent market for all participants.”

NEW YORK—Nielsen has announced a new approach to measuring audiences and tracking the effectiveness of digital ads that won’t require cookies.

The new approach, which will be part of its cross-media currency efforts Nielsen One, comes at a time when a variety of technological trends and privacy concerns have made it harder for researchers and advertisers to use cookies to track consumer behavior.

Nielsen said its new approach would get around this problem by eliminating its reliance on digital identifiers, thus ensuring that advertisers and publishers can “continue to measure confidently in a dynamic, privacy-first media environment.”

“If the industry has learned anything since the rise of cookies, it’s that digital media measurement must remain scalable, flexible and useful,” said Mainak Mazumdar, chief data officer at Nielsen. “Nielsen’s new cookieless measurement approach will further position the company to deliver deduplication across linear and digital as part of Nielsen One. Our new approach to measuring authenticated and unauthenticated digital traffic will enable us to scale across channels and platforms to ensure a comprehensive view of success and uncover areas for optimization.” 

In laying out its plans for measuring audiences in a cookless world, Nielsen noted that digital traffic will ultimately move into two distinct categories for measurement--authenticated and unauthenticated--as the deprecation of digital identifiers continues. 

To measure authenticated traffic, Nielsen said it will leverage all available identifiers and first-party data from participating clients, such as hashed email addresses, Unified ID 2.0 and select, verified self-reported demographic labels. This will ensure interoperability in the ad ecosystem, including with walled gardens, and simplify measurement for clients by reducing reliance on third parties.  

To measure unauthenticated traffic, logged out traffic or traffic on properties that do not have logged in environments or where no alternative identifiers can be provided, Nielsen said it has has developed a machine learning technique with additional contextual data signals including time, browser, content and device information. 

Nielsen also explained that the model will be validated against the panel for accuracy. Demographics  of unauthenticated behavior are also modeled and validated with panel observations for both representation and accuracy. 

Late last year, Nielsen announced its ID Resolution System which will further position the company to deliver deduplication across linear and digital platforms as part of Nielsen ONE, the single, cross-media currency that will span Nielsen’s global outcomes and cross-media measurement solutions, the company said. 

The company did not release specific timelines for the deployment of the new approach but it did note that “Nielsen aims to achieve full resiliency against the deterioration of digital identifiers by 2023 when the industry transitions to a cookieless environment.”

LONDON—“Stranger Things” is widely regarded as one of the most popular television series currently on air, but how Netflix measured its, and all of its other shows, viewership has been somewhat of a mystery as it does not use traditional Nielsen ratings. A recent letter submitted to the U.K.’s Parliament revealed some of the streamer’s method, sorting its viewers into three categories—“starters,” “watchers” and “completers.”

Responding to Parliament’s inquiry into “public service broadcasting in the age of video on-demand,” Netflix detailed how it shares viewership data with show creators to help determine whether a show should be canceled or not. Essentially, the streamer breaks down a show’s viewers as either a starter (watches two minutes of a film or one episode of a TV program) or a completer (watches 90% of a film or season of a show) for the first seven and 28 days a program is available. Watchers are viewers who watch 70% of a film or a single episode of a TV show; those numbers Netflix selectively shares with creators and the public, like when it announced the third season of “Stranger Things” as the “most watched season to date” with 64 million watchers.

Netflix believes that sharing starters and completers data with creatives gives “a broader understanding of how members engage with their title from start to finish. … Depending on how useful our partners find this data, we will consider sharing it in more countries outside Europe and North America.”

In a story from The Verge, it is explained that Netflix uses these numbers when considering whether a show should be renewed or canceled. That is determined, Verge writes, based on a ratio of the cost of the show to the viewership and how it helps in retaining subscribers and bringing in new ones.

During an earnings call this past January, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos said that he expects the company to begin sharing more of this data with creators.

RESTON, VA.--In the wake of industry reports about a 2017 loss of $281 million, comScore—which measures audiences, brands, and consumer behavior across media platforms—is making significant personnel changes, getting its financial house in order, and refocusing on core technologies, assets and services.

According to Broadcasting & Cable, the company’s 2017 loss was revealed followed a financial restatement process. That loss is double the $117.2 million loss in 2016 and $78.2 million loss in 2016. However, comScore reported that its 2017 revenue was $193.6 million, up from $173.1 million in 2016, and $11.9 million in 2015. In 2016, the company acquired Rentrak, which provided data on TV and movies, in an effort to challenge Nielsen.

[Read: ComScore And Rentrak To Merge]

Industry veteran Bryan Wiener, who has been a member of the company’s board of directors, becomes the new Chief Executive Officer, a position that’s been vacant since Gian Fulgoni’s November 2017 retirement. Wiener brings over 25 years experience in the advertising, media and technology industry, including his previous position as CEO of 360i, an ad agency whose stated mission is helping brands capitalize on change, leverage data expertise, and employ innovative technology to drive measurable impact across all media platforms.

comScore also added another industry veteran, Rob Norman, to its board of directors, and appointed current board member Brent Rosenthal to the post of non-executive chair. Norman has a long career as an advisor to media and marketing companies, including as former chief digital officer of WPP’s GroupM, a large media investment group.

As a media measurement company, comScore’s data footprint combines proprietary digital, TV and movie intelligence with vast demographic details to quantify consumers' multiscreen behavior to help media companies reach and monetize their audiences more effectively.

NEW YORK—It’s the beginning of the end of the paper era at Nielsen, as it announced that by mid-2017 it will provide all electronic measurement for its local television ratings across all of its 210 designated market areas. Nielsen will incorporate Return Path Data from set-top boxes and other electronic measurement into local services, which will lead to the retiring of paper TV diaries—which 140 TV markets currently utilize—by early 2018.

Return Path Data will be combined with Nielsen’s currency-grade panel data, as well as other electronic measurement, and will be available for all 210 markets on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis.

“By tapping into the strengths of Return Path Data and electronic measurement, and combining it with Nielsen’s gold-standard panels and meters, we will be delivering a superior product to help all local clients address current challenges and be better positioned for future trends,” said Megan Clarken, president, Nielsen Product Leadership.