U.S. TV Programmers Target New Audience-Measurement Technologies

OpenAP, Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount, TelevisaUnivision, Warner Bros. Discovery and the VAB have formed a new Joint Industry Committee (JIC) to focus on premium video currency.

The formation of the JIC is meant to enable multiple currencies with the primary focus of creating a measurement certification process to establish the suitability of emerging cross-platform measurement solutions in advance of the 2024 upfront.

The JIC has already started to use the collective efforts and progress being made across its members to develop measurement certification standards, which will be formalized and officially announced on March 1.

Starting in January 2023 with these launch partners, the JIC will fund key data initiatives to accelerate measurement innovation. The newly launched JIC will establish and maintain a measurement certification process in partnership with the VAB.

It will also create a programmer data set to enable third-party measurement vendors by harmonizing streaming viewership data brought together by OpenAP infrastructure.

Further, the JIC will engage a third-party audit firm to verify the accuracy of the streaming viewership dataset in order to maintain measurement independence and neutrality.

It will also collaborate with the VAB and ANA to accelerate progress made to measurement calibration by both parties, as well as with other key industry trade bodies, including the 4A’s, IAB, ARF and more.

Jeff Shell, CEO of NBCUniversal; Bob Bakish, CEO of Paramount; Wade Davis, CEO of TelevisaUnivision; and David Zaslav, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, said in a joint statement: “The sustainability of the premium video advertising model depends on an ecosystem for measurement that is transparent, independent, inclusive, and accurately reflects the way all people consume premium video content today—across multiple screens, connections, and devices. By coming together to establish this JIC, we can collaborate and accelerate the efforts to implement a new multi-currency future that fosters more competition, inclusivity and innovation and will ultimately better serve advertisers, agencies and consumers.”