The Audience Measurement Initiative's first initiative is reminiscent of a former industry initiative: the creation of a universal code for tracking media content. The plan, unveiled Wednesday by CBS
research chief David Poltrack at an AMI update during the ARF's Audience Measurement Symposium in New York, calls for a single "universal media code" that would replace the multiple coding schemes
that now exist for tracking media. Poltrack said the idea was based on the retail and packaged goods industries' creation of the Universal Product Code, or UPC during the 1970s, but the idea of a
universal media code was actually first developed as part of the SMART TV ratings initiative a decade ago. The so-called Smart Code, was at the heart of the effort's plan to measure TV as it evolved
through various digital distribution platforms.
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