The U.S. Joint Industry Committee (JIC) today (Sept. 20) announced that Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp have been granted conditional certification as part of its ongoing currency certification efforts, per a press release shared with Marketing Dive by OpenAP.
The organization bills the move as a milestone in bringing transparency to the industry on solutions for measuring cross-platform transactional value at scale and enabling more competition in a multicurrency marketplace but acknowledged that establishing a modern measurement and currency ecosystem will take more time and effort.
“Throughout the process thus far, it is clear that — while there is still work to be done — we are moving closer to having more currencies that are commercially ready for scalable transactions across both buyers and sellers,” reads a statement on behalf of the JIC.
Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp will now move onto the data evaluation stage, with the JIC still looking to issue full certification in early 2024. Certification status will be granted on a two-year term and will be up for further audit and evaluation to receive recertification. Companies that receive and maintain full certification will be granted access to the JIC Streaming Data Service, which is set to launch in beta next year and represents one of the JIC’s key promises to advertisers.
The announcement comes after an RFI scoring process that began in June with the public release of the JIC’s Scoring Rubric. A JIC subcommittee with equal representation of buyers and sellers then used the rubric to evaluate and grade companies, with a subcommittee vote on Aug. 1 reviewed and approved by the full JIC on Aug. 24.
The JIC will complement the currency certification process with a new measurement certification track in 2024 to bring more partners into the mix. Innovid, an ad-tech firm focused on connected TV, said that while it is not pursuing a currency strategy, it is currently in CEO-level conversations with OpenAP and the JIC about a possible non-currency related partnership, promising more details “when the time is right,” per a statement shared with Marketing Dive.
The JIC represents a challenge to the long-standing measurement dominance of Nielsen, which has declined to participate in the JIC due to legal, operational and scientific reasons. The JIC’s latest move comes as Nielsen awaits Media Rating Council accreditation on its big data and panel data integration, which could come as soon as Sept. 27, per Ad Age.
