Amid Upfront, JIC Endorses Comscore, iSpot, VideoAmp As Currency for Transactions

A battle over television audience measurement is playing out against a backdrop of upfront negotiations, the time when billions of dollars of advertising are bought and sold.

The “currency” for those transactions are audience estimates. Predictions are made about how many people are expected to see commercials. Media companies guarantee a minimum number of eyeballs. If fewer viewers show up, the advertiser gets more commercials to “make good” the shortfall.

Counting viewers–and providing the data used to estimate future audiences–is a business that’s been dominated by Nielsen, which over the years has used a number of methodologies to come up with its ratings. 

More recently, a group of competitors have emerged that use “big data”–from millions of cable set-top boxes and smart TVs–to measure audiences.

While competition among providers is something the industry endorses in principle, multiple currencies are complicated to keep track of and utilize, especially by overworked media buyers.

In 2023, a group of media companies formed the U.S. Joint Industry Committee (JIC) and invited media buyers to participate in setting standards and evaluating measurement companies and their currencies.

On Thursday, the JIC released the results of its mid-term audit and found that the measurement companies that had been previously certified–Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp– met its standards and could be reliably used in transactions during the upfront. (Comscore had previously been certified for use in transactions based on households and advanced audiences. Now it is also verified for use across personified demographics, like iSpot and VideoAmp.)

Nielsen has not participated in the JIC process. “We continue to have a standing invite and a standing request out to Nielsen to participate,” said a JIC spokesperson. “We think it is to their benefit and to the broader industry’s benefit to have them go through a similar data evaluation process and certification process so that the industry can have transparency on their new offerings.”

When the JIC started, Nielsen said it would not participate because of legal, operations and scientific issues. The company said it is priortizing working with the Media Rating Council, which audits and accredits measurement companies, for now.

ACCREDITATION

In addition to new competition, Nielsen has faced other issues. Nielsen relied on a sample panel of about 40,000 households to generate its ratings. During the pandemic, Nielsen was unable to oversee its panel homes. Its sample size shrunk and its ratings were less accurate. In September 2021, the Media Rating Council removed its accreditation from Nielsen’s national and local ratings systems until Nielsen could rebuild and better manage its sample.

At the same time, more and more viewers were getting their video programming via streaming, making measuring viewing behavior based on a relatively small sample less viable. 

Nielsen announced plans to integrate big data from millions of devices into its ratings and rolled out a new data stream it calls Big Data + Panel. Nielsen last month confirmed that Big Data + Panel will be the sole currency for the 2025-26 season.

“The vast majority of clients on both the buy and sell sides support and encourage Big Data + Panel,” Nielsen said. "We’ve worked hand in hand with clients for years to get to this point and we’re proud to be the first company to earn accreditation for this new frontier in measurement. We remain committed to our clients so that we can help them achieve their goals.” 

The MRC reinstated its accreditation of Nielsen’s panel-based national ratings system in April 2023, but continued to have questions about the way Nielsen was integrating Big Data.

In January 2025, the MRC accredited Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel Ratings, despite questions remaining about whether it met the requirements. That decision was questioned by some of Nielsen’s competitors and customers.

The MRC said that it was “fairly typical” for a service to be accredited with some open area.

 No service MRC audits is perfectly compliant and or has perfect KPIs, the MRC said in a statement. 

 “Nielsen has responded to each point with action plans, some of which have been completed and some remain in process.  Exact timing varies, but these types of issues are generally resolved over a shorter period (usually prior to completion of the next annual audit), the MRC said. “All of the large syndicated services we audit, across vendors, have this type of ongoing improvement activity.”

BIG DATA + PANEL ISSUES

While Nielsen said Big Data + Panel was ready to use in this year’s upfront, buyers and sellers had questions with the ratings data they were seeing.

Buyers met with Nielsen on June 11, followed by another meeting on June 12. With CEOs, heads of sales and research chiefs at 25 top media companies.

Among the issues the customers wanted addressed were big swings in out-of-home viewing, declines in viewership that were more pronounced in Big Data + Panel ratings compared to Panel only ratings, a big increase in the number of “zero TV" viewers, particularly the 15% of adults 25-54 that Nielsen says are not using TV for anything, and the spike in broadband only homes being included in the ratings. 

The sellers were also concerned about big drops in demographic audiences caused by Nielsen’s demographic assignment model. 

Another question from the networks was whether it made sense to stop publishing Panel only data given the issues with Big Data +Panel.

One research industry source said some of the issues with Big Data Plus Panel stems from the way Nielsen incorporates server data from streaming services.  That creates a different process for linear networks and streamers that may favor the streamers.

NIELSEN REPLIES

Nielsen replied to the issues raised in the June 12 meeting in a letter from Ryan Laredo, senior VP, customer experience. 

Regarding the differences between Big Data + Panel and Panel ratings for linear, "over nearly nine months of this continuous monitoring and, more recently, a full system deep dive, we have not uncovered any issues or defects,” Laredo said. 

“We have validated this increased trend in “Zero TV” homes and have every reason to believe that the trend is legitimate consumer behavior,” she added. 

Laredo said that Nielsen planned to add out-of-home panelists to increase stability and was modifying its Household Demographic Assignment Model, a change that will be audited by the MRC.

“We are here to support you throughout this transition and are focused on  providing the training, tools and data necessary for this Upfront season," Laredo said in the letter.

Nevertheless, the issues have meant that buyers and sellers are dealing with data that they believe is hard to project, which is contributing to a drawn out upfront marketplace. 

Nielsen is expected to release a new batch of Big Data + Panel ratings Thursday for the industry to evaluate.

Whether the new JIC audit will encourage more buyers and sellers to use currencies other than Nielsen remains to be seen. Complaining about Nielsen is a popular pastime in the industry, but it remains the dominant TV measurement company and is likely to be used for the majority of deals in this upfront.

VideoAmp, for one, is bullish, naturally. “It’s clear the currency game is now a two-horse race. We’re seeing significant momentum this upfront season, with VideoAmp now being used in a meaningful volume of deals across major holding companies and top-tier publishers. What was once considered 'alternative' is now core to how the market is transacting; we’ve moved beyond test-and-learn,” said Bryan Goski, executive VP of revenue at Video Amp. “Buyers and sellers are embracing a more competitive, data-driven currency landscape, and VideoAmp is at the center of that shift."

The JIC maintains that its process is different from the MRC’s and that both are necessary. 

“The MRC tells you if a measurement company’s methodology is adhered to. The JIC tells you if it’s ready to transact on — and for what use cases. Both are essential, especially in a fragmented marketplace," the JIC says in its report.

But JIC spokesperson Brittany Slattery put a finer point on that. "We look at real data against real use cases--not hypothetical theory--to determine was it stable? Was it forecastable? And could you plan and measure on it?”

MID-TERM AUDIT

The JIC said its mid-term audit reaffirmed the certification and currency-grade readiness of Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp.

“Receiving full JIC certification, particularly for our persons-based data, underscores Comscore’s commitment to setting a higher standard for media measurement,” said Jon Carpenter, CEO of Comscore. “We are the only provider that marries big data with methodological rigor in a way that is recognized by both the MRC and the JIC. This signals to the industry that Comscore continues to lead the way in delivering scalable, accurate, and certified measurement solutions that our clients can trust.”

"We’re proud that VideoAmp’s currency grade measurement has once again earned JIC accreditation. The timing could not come at a more critical moment as the advertising industry is in flux, planning an upfront based on a methodology that is volatile," added VideoAmp Executive Chairman Peter Ligouri.

"The talk in Cannes centered around the volatility of Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel that led to several Nielsen crisis meetings with the VAB, Publishers, HoldCos and the MRC as upfront forecasts deals are facing challenges with the live data," Ligouri said. "As we understand it, no brand advertisers were invited to this discussion. Who does that serve?"

The JIC accreditation serves as a reminder that uncertain times require higher, not lower standards. All efforts should benefit the ultimate end users - the advertisers and brands who deserve the highest fidelity data to create the best return on their valuable media investments.

The audit had three parts. The measurement companies had to answer 116 detailed data evaluation questions covering areas including use of big data, personification and interoperability with media buying and selling systems.

They were also tested under situations that simulated the upfront for usability across the total ad supply as well as a series of tests to see how they performed for buying and selling sports, a crucial and tricky part of the TV business. 

The evaluation was based on two years of data about program and commercial viewing and was designed to see whether audience impressions were stable over time, logically additive and consistent across networks and inventory tiers.

“These tests mirror how buyers model GRPs, negotiate pricing and forecast reach. The verdict: all three providers passed, confirming their data can reliably be used to value media," the JIC's audit report said.

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Speaking of VideoAmp, the measurement company said it expanded its relationship with Amazon Web Services’s cloud-based Clean Room technology 

Pairing VideoAmp's proprietary methodology with AWS Clean Rooms enables advertisers and publishers to unlock insights without compromising their commitments to privacy or ability to control their data.

“Our expanded measurement offering with AWS Clean Rooms allows us to bring VideoAmp’s proprietary measurement capabilities directly to where our clients’ data already lives—on a secure, cloud-native environment,” said Tony Fagan, Chief Technology Officer at VideoAmp. “The result is faster, more actionable insights and more efficient campaigns for our customers. This is a significant step forward in making clean room-native measurement the new industry-leading standard.”

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Samsung Ads said it launched a new data-driven ad product designed to turn gamers into active app users. 

The Mobile Conversion product turns CTV engagement into measurable cross screen outcomes, using Samsung’s audience and device graphs, the company said.

Here’s how it works. Users with high propensity to install gaming apps are identified through advanced audience intelligence. A “Maximize Conversion” feature dynamically adjusts bid pricing to drive efficiency and scale, while “Creative Optimization" services the most relevant ads based on real-time behavioral signals. A “Cross-Inventory Optimization” process shifts media spending toward top-performing inventory. 

The Samsung Ads’ Mobile Conversion product has already demonstrated strong results. In beta testing, Samsung Ads consistently beat client-defined goals, outperforming by as much as a 150% index on Day 7 Return on Ad Spend (ROAS) benchmarks. 

“Measurement has long been fragmented across TV and mobile, making it difficult for marketers to see the full impact of their spend,” said Michael Scott, VP & Head of Ad Sales & Operations at Samsung Ads. “With Mobile Conversion, we’re closing that gap—connecting viewing behavior on the biggest screen to action on the smallest, giving brands a unified, measurable view of their consumer across channels.” 

Samsug said it plans to expand Mobile Conversion to other advertisers categories, including travel, quick-service restaurants, financial services, retail and media & entertainment.

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Superman has flown from Metropolis to Roku City. 

As part of a deal with Warner Bros. Discovery, Roku is helping to launch the new Superman movie with a campaign that uses several elements on the streaming platform. 

Roku’s search homepage and search tabs are branded with the Superman logo. The flim is also featured on Roku’s home screen, making it hard for viewers to miss.

There is also a promoted search row that takes users to a dedicated destination on Roku featuring trailers and exclusive behind-the-scenes content about the movie. 

Viewers will aos be able to get to the Super search row via the Roku’s voice-powered remote.

Roku didn’t say whether the man of steel will also be appearing on Roku’s purple screen saver, Roku City.