Why NBCU, Fox and other networks are partnering to share streaming data and certify measurement firms

Four of the five biggest U.S. network TV players and the OpenAP data collective are creating a so-called Joint Industry Council to set standards, coordinate collection of streaming data from programmers and certify third-party players to measure streaming audiences in time for the 2024 upfronts.

Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount, TelevisaUnivision and Warner Bros. Discovery are the networks initially agreeing to share their server data, with OpenAP fostering the inter-operability of the system. But other players that haven’t been part of OpenAP up to now, including The Walt Disney Co., Netflix and Amazon are free to join and encouraged to do so, executives said.

The JIC is similar to what numerous countries outside the U.S. have had for decades, where TV networks collectively negotiate measurement contracts. But executives of Paramount and NBCUniversal said the plan here is not to negotiate an industry contract or select a single player, and it’s not meant to cover linear TV measurement at this point. Instead, the goal is to set standards, get visibility into how third-party measurement firms are operating and hire a yet-to-be-named firm to audit the collection, analysis and reporting of streaming viewership data.

Not an MRC replacement

The standards-setting and auditing sound very much like what the Media Rating Council does. But the MRC also represents buy-side agency and brand marketing players. And NBCU and Paramount executives said the JIC is only looking to complement, not replace, the MRC. The JIC in a statement said it will work with a variety of trade groups including the Video Advertising Burea, Association of National Advertisers, 4A’s and Advertising Research Foundation.

While it might not replace the MRC, the JIC may be faster. The MRC, while it long has had published cross-platform measurement standards in place, has under review the re-accreditation of Nielsen panel-based TV measurement and Digital Ad Ratings, plus new applications for Comscore TV measurement and one component of iSpot.tv’s measurement. But audits have yet to begin on components of Nielsen One—intended to be used as currency by the 2024 upfronts—and other measurement players, including VideoAmp, have yet to begin the audit process. There’s no guarantee those audits will all begin, much less be completed, by May 2024.

Ready for 2024 upfront

For the JIC, “Our intention is by the broadcast year 2024 to have certified all measurement providers and currency providers that adhere to [JIC] requirements, and then that will be transaction ready basically for the premium video ecosystem,” said John Halley, president of advertising and chief operating officer of Paramount.

The JIC expects to announce measurement standards on March 1, then host an event April 25 to share a first look at progress being made toward “accelerating the multi-currency future and upfront readiness of measurement partners,” according to a statement.

“This is the first time that our industry has come together and said, ‘Look, there are principles of currency that need to be adhered to by any of these new currency products to become standard,'” Halley said. “There have been other efforts in the past to help enable those products, but never have we put them under the microscope and said how do they work and how do they interface with what the industry needs?”

Among the basic standards, according to Halley, are “transactional model flexibility” that gives buyers and sellers the ability to choose between doing business on demographics, advanced audiences or outcomes. “They have to be interoperable with the current ecosystem,” Halley said. “They need to be built on modern infrastructure and support things like clean rooms. They have to be transparent. They have to be auditable.”

Similar to markets outside U.S.

U.S. players have been looking at joint industry councils in other countries, said Krishan Bhatia, president and chief business officer of NBCU.

“We felt strongly we should take a page out of the book of those other markets and formalize it in a new entity that can accelerate execution,” he said. “The track record we had with OpenAP over the past few years created both a trust among members and putting points on the board. We’ve built a multi-hundred-billion advanced advertising platform and business that governs, very similarly, data and audience targeting standards for activations for agency and client partners.”

The move comes as advertisers and audiences rapidly shift dollars and viewing to ad-supported streaming. And by limiting its standards and certification effort to streaming at this point, the JIC has bypassed some of the thornier issues of measurement. Much of the hardest part of measuring TV viewership is in quantifying linear TV audiences that use a variety of devices, including broadcast signals.

Leveraging network data

Measuring streaming can be easier in the sense that it could start with the networks’ own server logs, which show which household accounts are logged in and watching. The JIC will work with the OpenAP infrastructure to “harmonize” collection of publisher streaming data for use by third-party firms," the group said in a statement.

Third-party measurement firms have used set-top boxes, smart TVs and household panels to get such data in a process that inevitably leaves some households out.

The JIC is looking to ensure all streaming by households gets measured, with device or panel data and modeling used to estimate who within each household is watching, also known as personification or co-viewing. While not part of the JIC at this point, Amazon Prime has tried a similar approach—combining its server data with third-party panel modeling—to report audience numbers alongside those reported by Nielsen. Amazon’s own numbers are typically higher.

The JIC will also work with the ANA, VAB and others in their effort to back a new calibration panel, which could be incorporated into the streaming measurements but have broader application to linear and other digital video viewership too. Those groups remain in talks, with the ANA favoring a smaller panel to back pilot tests and the VAB favoring a larger one similar in size to what Nielsen has used for decades as the foundation of its TV ratings.

“I think it's good for the networks to get aligned,” said iSpot.tv CEO Sean Muller. “We have deals with all of them, and they all are driving slightly different things and then different priorities and assessing platforms in different ways. It’s good to try to get some collaboration.”

Muller said the effort will help move the industry past streamers simply trading on their own server data, and he feels iSpot’s recent investment in TVision, giving it exclusive access to that panel provider’s streaming data, will put it in a good place as certification begins.