As the TV industry tries to set new standards for cross-platform measurement, YouTube, the streaming leader, wants in and the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), representing programmers, is pushing back.

At issue could be whether programmers can afford all those scripted dramas and comedies if they have to compete in a market flooded with viewers of user-generated content.

Also Read: Premium Predicament: What’s Being Measured Is As Important Than Who Measures It

The rumble comes after programmers and media-agency executives, working as part of a programmer-funded Joint Industry Committee on Monday put forward a list of standards they want measurement companies to meet in order to get certified. 

The programmers originally wanted to standard to apply to the measurement of “premium video.” They don't want The Bear lumped in with Mr. Beast. Premium video proved difficult to define, so the standards apply to “long-form video.”

YouTube was having none of that. On Wednesday, YouTube published a blog post by Kate Alessi, managing director, YouTube/Video Global Solutions, which essentially argued that in cross-platform measurement, an impression is an impression.

“As an industry, we’ve arrived at a crossroads,“ she said. ”We have the opportunity to come together to solve cross-media measurement for marketers, agencies and consumers or we can head down a path of creating new measurement silos, inconsistent standards and unnecessary complexity.” 

Alessi proposed five principles. The first states that “measurement must provide a unified view of audiences across TV, CTV and online platforms” and the second calls on the industry to use the Media Rating Council’s viewable impression as the basis for counting impressions, reach and frequency and report other metrics, such as duration, separately. 

Also: NBCU Trying To Quantify Quality Amid Debate on Measurement

The MRC’s definition of a viewable impression is 100% of pixels shown for 2 seconds.

Some agencies, including GroupM, hold out for a higher standard.

YouTube said it would enable the MRC version of viewable impressions in its third-party measurement integrations.

Alessi said in the future of measurement there should be no new silos. “Audience is king, so measure it on a fair and comparable basis,“ she said. “Don’t silo video inventory based on arbitrary concepts like production value or curation. And yes, we believe our product will speak for themselves if we’re counted accurately and compared fairly in this environment.”

In a statement, VAB CEO Sean Cunningham skewered the idea that marketers win when “comparative impressions calculations default to the lowest common denominator.”

“It’s fair to say that the only entities that ‘win’ by that approach of hollowing out all factors of impression source, quality and impact are the entities with the largest supply of comparatively hollow, low/no investment impressions,” he said. “There is no other reason for a ‘principle’ that calls for a race to the bottom (lowest common denominator impressions) on a global scale.”

Cunningham notes that the TV business spends over $110 billion on content designed to engage consumers for advertisers. He adds that there are myriad studies showing that ads in professionally produced, long-form, multiscreen TV content yield superior impact with consumers.

He jabs YouTube by noting that the platform has spent $226 million on TV advertising for itself over the past five years. 

“While there may be ‘wins; somewhere in a principle defaulting to impression homogeneity and lowest common denominator — they are not marketer wins,” Cunningham concluded.

YouTube pointed to quotes from marketing industry leaders supporting its point of view.

“Marketers of all sizes insist on a measurement system that is objective, independent, transparent, neutral, and third-party verified and accredited by MRC,” said Bill Tucker, group executive VP at the Association of National Advertisers. “ANA’s CMM is based on these north star principles, and we support YouTube’s approach to aligning and advocating for these principles.”

Said Luis Di Como, global head of media at Unilever: “Unilever has long been committed to driving the adoption of a robust and transparent cross-media measurement system across the industry to offer brands more transparency in terms of their investment and better online experience for consumers. It’s encouraging to see YouTube aligns its principles for measurement by adopting industry standards and collaborating with the wider ecosystem." 

“Quality content is determined by the consumer and no one else,“ Bharad Ramesh, executive director, research and investment analytics, GroupM, said. “With viewers consuming content across many platforms, channels and screens, all that our clients and media partners can do is determine a fair value for quality — and it starts with measurement. It’s important that, as an industry, we collaborate to make an accurate and sustainable environment with standardized measurement capabilities to help make advertising work better for our clients and consumers.” 

“Advertisers have expressed their ‘North Star’ needs from cross-media measurement,“ World Federation of Advertisers CEO Stephan Loerke said. “The WFA is working with the ANA and ISBA to translate this into real-world technology solutions available globally. Whether this approach or another is adopted by a market, naturally it makes sense to align around advertiser needs. Innovation in measurement is key, but not at the expense of being useful and accurate.” ■

Nielsen, looking to unify television measurement across platforms, technologies and devices, said it named Scott Brown as general manager, audience measurement, overseeing its linear TV, advanced TV and digital video products.

Brown has been chief technology officer for measurement products. In his new role, he will attempt to meet the demands of networks, advertisers, agencies, platforms and content creators for a clear view of media consumption across all platforms.

The move comes as Nielsen, under pressure from investors, is dividing itself into two companies, one focusing on global media measurement.

Related: Nielsen: Streaming Grows to 25% of TV Usage in 2Q

“Consumers are watching premium video in a fundamentally different way today than they were even five years ago. The opportunity for marketers is enormous. We’re bringing together the ability to effectively plan, optimize and measure through the full funnel so that marketers can monetize this opportunity to the fullest extent,” said Eric Bosco, chief product officer for Nielsen Media. “Scott will play a critical role in bridging all of our measurement solutions together to ensure that we meet the evolving needs of the market.”  

Nielsen said Brown is overhauling its digital measurement methodology, which will enable it to create a flexible, independent platform that can quickly adapt to evolving privacy and policy changes. He’s also heading an effort to incorporate addressable advertising into TV measurement.

“Marketers and publishers want to understand their audience across all platforms in a simple way. They want to understand where the true incremental reach comes from and how different platforms and services perform to ultimately help inform both advertising strategies as well as program and content decisioning,” said Brown. “Nielsen has historically measured media types and platforms independently. However, as convergence across all media types continue, the industry will require a single methodology for a holistic view that captures how digital, connected TV and other platforms perform alongside linear TV. This is the holy grail.” 

As CTO, Brown led the implementation of Nielsen’s measurement products across mobile, computers and connected TVs and migrated the company’s infrastructure to a cloud architecture. 

Before that he was senior VP, technology and strategy. He joined Nielsen in 2009. Brown previously did IT consulting at KPMG.

While the dust continues to settle over last week’s announcement of the proposed merger between comScore and Rentrak, one consensus sentiment has risen above the rest — competition is good.

And competition, especially as it relates to the challenging field of crossplatform audience measurement, is very good.

CIMM (the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement) is supportive of the proposed merger because the competition it will bring to the audience- measurement industry will fuel innovations and new approaches. That is what competition always helps spur.

For example, comScore has already launched a version 1.0 X-Media service, and now Nielsen is launching one of its own. Both will need improvements as users test them out, but competition will ensure that over time these improvements will take place.

BREEDING COMPLACENCY

Certainly, in an environment where patterns of content consumption are evolving faster than we as an industry can develop methods to measure them, the reality of relying upon one or even two main measurement providers is not healthy for anyone — not even the providers. This level of market dominance inevitably leads to complacency simply because the economic incentive for taking chances and innovating is not there. The risk is too great, and the reward too small.

That, to a great extent, is why CIMM was founded — to serve as the industry’s research-and-development arm, fueling innovation in cross-platform measurement technologies as a counterbalance to what was seen as the slow pace of innovation.

Competition is only part of the problem, though, and compensating for the lack of it was only one reason why CIMM came to be. The other is a more important “c” word — cooperation.

Just as the most effective drug therapy will be of no use unless a patient complies with its administration, so, too, the most innovative technologies and approaches will be of little impact unless we collectively as an industry work together to effectively implement them.

Because just as there is a degree of complacency in innovation that occurs in a market dominated by a handful of players, there is also a complacency that develops among customers. The pull to favor what one already knows, even if it is not perfect, can be strong. It is often easier to just not rock the boat.

And that can certainly hold back the industry’s overall desire and ability to innovate and embrace change.

COMPETITION AND CONSENSUS

Competition, too, as helpful as it is to innovation, can be endemic to cooperation. There is the risk of ending up with a highly fractured approach to crossplatform measurement with no consensus as to what an acceptable metric is.

That is not to suggest we should desire competition to result in yet just another single source dominated measurement environment, but simply that broad industry conversation and cooperation is needed to help contribute, guide and direct the shape that crossplatform measurement is to take.

Certainly, those who do not participate in the conversation — who fall susceptible to complacency — will have no opportunity to change things after the fact.

And while competition, and the innovative technology it brings, will fuel the drive to more effective crossplatform measurement, it will be the human element, realized through conversation and cooperation, that will make it a reality.

That is really why CIMM was founded, to serve as a nexus for buyers and sellers to discuss and work together, and we are pleased to continue to serve in that role in the exciting days ahead as both the combined comScore and Rentrak take shape and our other initiatives in crossplatform measurement come to fruition.

Jane Clarke is CEO and managing director of CIMM, the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement. For more information, visit www.cimm-us.org