U.S. JIC Fully Certifies Comscore, VideoAmp As 'Transactional' Currencies

by Joe Mandese , April 3, 2024

The U.S. Joint Industry Committee (JIC) this morning announced Comscore and VideoAmp have received full certification as a transactional currency for the U.S. advertising marketplace.

The move comes more than six months after the JIC granted conditional currency to Comscore, VideoAmp, and iSpot, which remains conditionally certified pending a final certification decision, which will be made by the JIC in June, in time for the 2024-25 upfront advertising marketplace.

The JIC previously voted not to certify three other alternative currency applicants -- Innovid, Samba TV, and 605 -- and so far has not announced any new currency certification applicants.

The transactional currency certifications are granted for a two-year term covering the 2024 and 2025 calendar years.

The JIC said a mid-term audit will be conducted in November of each year to ensure the currency providers are maintaining transparency and methodological compliance.

The next certification window for potential new currency providers who want to apply or reapply will take place annually in June.

4 comments about "U.S. JIC Fully Certifies Comscore, VideoAmp As 'Transactional' Currencies".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, April 3, 2024 at 12:21 p.m.
A "mid-term audit"will be conducted each year to determine whether the "certified currencies" are maintaining transparency and "methodolgcical compliance"---Hmm?So why do we need an MRC--one might ask? Are any of the "certified" sources going to be required to get MRC accreditation by the "JIC"? And how, exactly, will the "JIC" cooperate with the MRC? Questions, questions?
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Tony Jarvis from Olympic Media Consultancy, April 3, 2024 at 3:47 p.m.

Ed: Perhaps we simply have the blind leading the "don't want to see"??? May this shameful US "JIC" masquarade continue the TV/Video "currency" (it's singular, per the great Jack Wakshlag, and all real JICs around the world!) chaos!

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, April 3, 2024 at 4:30 p.m.

Tony, I think that we should consider the seller's position---which I fully understand---I think. After all, as they are the primary funders of the national TV rating service---which, no doubt, will continue to be Nielsen's new "big data" system---they feel they should control the specs for said service ---within acceptable limits. The key being not so much, the actual amount of "viewing"that is recorded but how it splits among the sellers and among their respective programs.

Add to that the natural desire to have added metrics to help in ad sales promotion on an optional basis--like the various "alternative currencies"--without interference by the MRC and its strict requirements--- and the "JIC" is what you get.

Frankly, I have to hand it to the sellers as they have accomplished their goal---primarily as the agencies are mostly silent because their clients don't seem very interested. This is not surprising as the time buyers are evaluated based on CPMs ---not ad awareness or sales results--- and they do a generally good job for their clients in dividing up their spending based on the Nielsens.

Is this a disaster? I'm not so sure as I don't see any advertiser being unduly harmed and those few who explore added "currency" refinemments may, over time, learn something about how ads work. So, all we are getting is more of the same when it comes to "audience measurement"---only with much larger device usage samples and still, no valid info on who is watcfhing. Plus, here and there, some of us may obtain additional insights that might be interesting.

The sad thing is that advertisers had a huge opportunity to back attentiveness measurements---which would have told them many important things----beyond what shows to buy time in---and they muffed it. Enjoy your CPMs, guys and gals.

Tony Jarvis from Olympic Media Consultancy, April 3, 2024 at 4:53 p.m.

"Enjoy your CPM's?" But, as we know, CPM, stands for Completely Positively Mad especially when they are based on content-rendered-counts (aka so called 'viewable impressions' that reflect NO REALOTS) rather than an attentiveness metric.

As you know John Grono & I developed and published (ESOMAR), "The 10 Cornerstones to JICs & MOCs" based on extensive research, intimate experience and a full international peer review.

This M-CCC, Multi-Currency Certification Committee, fails to meet any of the 10 long established and refined operational critera of JICs. This is why it is so shameful that this group, with its massive conflict of interest, continue the abuse and blatant misrepresentation and, in addition, that the global media agencies have not fully addressed this sham. The 4As wrote an excellent critique of the choas situation unfortunately with a non-sequitur conclusion.