Media Rating Council

2023 was an eventful year in the land of TV ad measurement, from buy-side demand for performance-oriented CTV campaigns to the dramatic competition between alternative TV measurement providers.

TV programmers and agencies say they’re ready to transact their ad buys using a measurement provider other than Nielsen. But panel-based currency is proving more difficult to dethrone than anticipated.

The Media Rating Council has the same goals of promoting fair media measurement as it did when it formed in the ’60s. But it has had to polish its methodology to keep pace with change in the TV measurement space, says Ron Pinelli, the organization’s SVP of digital research and standards.

The TV industry still can’t agree on the point of panels. They’re a necessary resource for measurement, but there’s no consensus about how to actually build or use them.

When the MRC revoked its seal of approval for Nielsen’s TV ratings in 2021, it spurred a hunt for alternatives. Now, media and tech companies are debating whether MRC accreditation is even necessary.

Here’s today’s AdExchanger.com news round-up… Want it by email? Sign up here. Tracking Shot The bad news keeps coming for YouTube. The platform has been under intense scrutiny from research firm Adalytics. Its latest report, which accuses YouTube of serving targeted ads on kid-focused content, may have also uncovered evidence that YouTube has been violating […]

Integral Ad Science (IAS) beat its earnings and revenue estimates for the second quarter despite belt-tightening among advertisers and fallout from the recent TrueView scandal.

Integral Ad Science added a new capability to measure brand safety and suitability for off-YouTube sites and apps through YouTube’s ad network.

The JIC is looking to set the record straight on not just its requirements for currency, but also that it believes those requirements are sufficient even without requiring MRC accreditation.

“Measurement” and “currency” are often conflated in TV land, but they’re not the same. They have different standards and use cases – and these contrasts matter as the industry looks for a better way to transact TV ads.