Programmers launch a Joint Industry Committee to set audience measurement standards

Major TV programmers have teamed up in a new attempt to solve what they consider as an audience measurement problem and battle Nielsen dominance.

Comcast NBCUniversal, Paramount Global, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery, TelevisaUnivision and the VAB said they formed a Joint Industry Committee so they can work together to set standards for measuring what they call premium video, which generates $70 billion in advertising revenue.

The JIC will certify multiple currencies from multiple providers and promote the use of the programmers’ first-party viewer data as a foundation for measuring streaming as part of multi-screen campaigns.

Krishan Bhatia, president and Chief Business Officer for Advertising Sales at NBCUniversal told Broadcasting+Cable, considers this move is a major milestone. “It is the culmination of a lot of industry progress that has already been made and will kick this into overdrive and actually move it into execution mode.”

The programmers expect more of their colleagues to join the JIC. At this point The Walt Disney Co. is not on the roster. Nor are ad-supported streamers like YouTube or Netflix.

“We will consider all players that have a shared objective, adhere to these standards, have premium video content and also are willing to make their data, interoperable,” Bhatia said.

The JIC will use facilities created by Open AP, the advanced advertising company owned by several of the programmers, to handle data. They said it will look to have media buying agencies and trade groups including the VAB, ANA (Association of National Advertisers), 4A’s (American Association of Advertising Agencies), IAB (Internet Advertising Bureau) and ARF( Advertising Research Foundation) collaborate with the JIC to accelerate the process of getting to a multi-currency future.

Standards will be announced on March 1 and measurement companies will be invited to submit products for certification. The move comes at a time when most programmers have tested alternatives to Nielsen and to some degree have begun using them to sell ads. But the programmers also have contracts with Nielsen and the majority of advertising transactions are still done with Nielsen as the currency and standard for guaranteeing performance.

Nielsen has been unsuccessfully challenged many times in the past. To show that the industry has the high-level will to financial resolve this time, the CEOs of the founding companies, such as NBCU’s Jeff Shell, Bob Bakish of Paramount, Wade Davis of TelevisaUnivision and WBD’s David Zaslav, have been quoted saying: “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.”

Nielsen, in a statement, said: “We appreciate working with all the industry bodies vested in the best way to measure the changing audience and providing fidelity and trust between advertisers, agencies, publishers and platforms. We continue to believe it is critical to have measurement that is transparent, consistent, auditable and independent.”

JIC’s are used in many countries to organize audience measurement services. They are legal in the US and Bhatia said that each company’s legal team has been involved to avoid any charges that they’re violating antitrust law.

The collective approach is also needed to oversee that the viewing data supplied by the programmers is handled and applied properly.

The JIC is starting out working with OpenAP because the industry has developed a level of trust in OpenAP’s ability to work with all parties impartially and handle data securely.

As it develops, the JIC will operate in parallel and increasingly independent from OpenAP. A management structure and executive leadership for the JIC will be determined shortly, Bhatia said.

“This will be a separate and new entity that we’re going to be inviting additional members into within the premium video ecosystem,” he said. Adding that the JIC will be “working very collaboratively with all the existing trade bodies and obviously the buy side of agencies and clients that ultimately are necessary to create a true industry solution.”

Bhatia said the JIC would hire an auditor to ensure that viewing data is not being manipulated before being included in the measurement products produced by third-party measurement companies.