LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y. — Was it something NBCUniversal shared on Tuesday at its One22 presentation, which effectively declared that it would be shunning Nielsen as the Hester Prynne of the data measurement world?
The Media Rating Council on Thursday provided an update on the current statuses of the Linear and Connected TV measurement services that are currently engaged in the MRC’s accreditation process.
The big takeaway: MRC confirms there are no accredited services heading into the Upfronts.
“Companies not included on these lists are not engaged with MRC at this time for their TV measurement,” the MRC said.
That said, the MRC is making it clear to advertisers and marketers that, despite NBCUniversal‘s decisions, lack of accreditation abounds.
Still, there’s a somewhat clear picture as to which services could be accredited by the MRC sooner than others.
Services are listed below in order of accreditation status and alphabetical order within category:
Linear Television Audience Measurement Services
| Service Name | Current MRC Status | Notes |
| Comscore TV (National and Local services)
|
Not Accredited, In Process
|
The current MRC audit of Comscore TV began in Fall 2021, with an audit report expected to be delivered to an MRC audit committee in Q3 2022. See MRC notice dated February 3, 2022 for audit scope and additional details. |
| Nielsen (National, Local People Meter, Local Set Meter services) | Accreditation Suspended, In Process
|
Accreditation of Nielsen’s National and Local Television services was suspended in September 2021 (see MRC notice dated Sept. 1, 2021 for more details). MRC and Nielsen recently reached agreement about the auditing that will be necessary prior to reconsideration of the accreditation statuses of these services. While auditing of certain related areas already has been done, Nielsen’s remediation work will extend into Q2 2022, and therefore a complete audit report is not expected to be delivered to MRC until the end of Q3. Additionally, an audit of Nielsen’s “Big Data” inputs to its future TV measurements is currently in process, with this audit report expected to be delivered to MRC in mid Q3. |
Linear Television Ad Monitoring Services
| Service Name | Current MRC Status | Notes |
| Media Monitors Television Spot Service | Accredited | Accredited for its monitoring of TV ad spots and Public Service Announcements of 15 seconds or greater in length. |
| iSpot.tv | Not Accredited, In Process | An audit is currently underway of iSpot’s reporting of TV ad occurrence data. |
| Nielsen Ad Intel | Accreditation Suspended, In Process (as a subcomponent of Nielsen’s National TV service) | Ad Intel is audited by MRC as a subcomponent of the Nielsen National TV service audit, with its audit scope limited to its contribution to the calculation of Nielsen’s C3/C7 audience estimates. |
Connected Television (CTV) Ad Measurement Services
| Service Name | Current MRC Status | Notes |
| DoubleVerify | Accredited | Accredited for CTV Display and Video rendered ad impression measurement, and Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT) detection and filtration. |
| Extreme Reach | Accredited | Accredited for CTV Video rendered ad impression and Play events measurement. |
| FreeWheel | Accredited | Accredited for CTV Video rendered ad impression measurement. |
| Hulu | Accredited | Accredited for CTV Video rendered ad impression and ad completion measurements. |
| HUMAN | Accredited | Accredited for CTV Video rendered ad impression measurement, and Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT) detection and filtration. |
| Innovid | Accredited | Accredited for CTV Video rendered ad impression measurement. |
| Oracle Moat Brand Analytics | Accredited | Accredited for CTV Video rendered ad impression measurement, and Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT) detection and filtration. |
| Pixalate | Accredited | Accredited for CTV Video tracked ad and rendered ad impression measurement, and Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT) detection and filtration. |
| Protected Media | Accredited | Accredited for CTV Video rendered ad impression measurement, and Sophisticated Invalid Traffic (SIVT) detection and filtration. |
| Integral Ad Science | Not Accredited, In Process | Audit currently underway for CTV Video tracked ads, and rendered and viewable ad impression measurement. |
| Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings | Not Accredited, In Process | Audit currently underway for ad campaign measurement in CTV environments. For more details on the current audit of Nielsen DAR, see MRC notice dated December 14, 2021. |
| Trivver | Not Accredited, In Process | Pre-assessment in process for measurement of In-Game ads in CTV (In-Game Console and Smart TV) environments. |
| Zefr | Not Accredited, In Process | Pre-assessment in process for Brand Safety and Suitability reporting of English-language content on Google YouTube and TikTok in CTV environments. |
The Media Rating Council is a non-profit industry association established in 1963 comprised of leading television, radio, print and digital media companies, as well as advertisers, advertising agencies and trade associations, whose goal is to ensure measurement services that are valid, reliable and effective. Measurement services desiring MRC accreditation are required to disclose to their customers all methodological aspects of their service; comply with the MRC Minimum Standards for Media Rating Research as well as other applicable industry measurement guidelines; and submit to MRC-designed audits to authenticate and illuminate their procedures. In addition, the MRC membership actively pursues research issues they consider priorities in an effort to improve the quality of research in the marketplace. Currently approximately 110 research products are audited by the MRC.
