The U.S. Joint Industry Committee (JIC) has completed its mid-term audit of Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp, reaffirming the certification and currency-grade readiness of all these firms, per a press release. The update comes ahead of the 2025-26 broadcast season that kicks off in September.
The audit included more than 699 tests to ensure that the three currencies were technically viable and operationally ready for planning, pricing and reconciliation and analyzed three areas: data evaluation, total ad supply and sports.
Firms responded to more than 100 questions about areas like big data infrastructure, governance and interoperability and were scored with an emphasis on transparency and completeness. They also provided two years of ad- and telecast-level data to ensure that each provider could reliably value media. Lastly, the providers were evaluated on impression stability, ability to deduplicate and consistency in data around live sports, including NFL, NBA and March Madness events — a crucial area for broadcasters and advertisers.
"As innovation in measurement continues, it is critical that media buyers and sellers have the time and ability to thoroughly analyze updates to new methodology so that we can have confidence in each currency. This requires a level of transparency from each provider that ultimately breeds trust and confidence in their solution," the JIC said in a statement.
The JIC was formed at the beginning of 2023 to enable multiple currencies and establish cross-platform measurement solutions for streaming video. Its membership includes media companies Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount, TelevisaUnivision and Warner Bros. Discovery; media agencies Dentsu, GroupM, Horizon Media, IPG Mediabrands, Omnicom Media Group, Publicis Media and RPA; and industry bodies OpenAP and the Video Advertising Bureau.
Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp were granted conditional certification in September 2023 before receiving full certification in 2024, enshrining the firms as the key players in TV measurement alongside longtime industry leader Nielsen.
While Nielsen’s challenges during the pandemic era opened the door to alternative currencies, the firm received accreditation for its Big Data + Panel National TV measurement from the Media Rating Council in January and has been able to re-entrench itself in the industry.
