BELLEVUE, Wash. & DALLAS—In an important development that could help spur more competition in the TV measurement arena, iSpot has earned its first Media Rating Council (MRC) accreditation for the ability to accurately identify, verify and track national TV ad occurrences across 178 linear and broadcast networks.
iSpot first introduced its real-time system for TV ad cataloging in 2012, and has provided complete ad-level transparency to brands, agencies and networks for more than 2 million unique creatives to date across 63,672 brands and 179 industries. iSpot’s TV ad occurrence data is the basis for a myriad of applications that help advertisers verify, optimize and justify ad investments, the company said.
iSpot also explained its investment in the accreditation of this aspect of its ad catalog provides the industry with a fast baseline of truth for traditional national inventories which serve as a basis for critical cross-platform measurement.
“We sought accreditation of our national ad occurrence data based on our TV ad cataloging system because we know it to be the most robust, fastest and best solution of its kind for the marketplace, but also because it’s the unshakable foundation for so many products the industry is using to make transaction decisions,” says iSpot founder, CEO, Sean Muller.
In addition, the accreditation provides more assurances for the buy and sell sides in reconciling brand guidelines attached to ad investment — including verification of pod placement, competitive juxtaposition and daypart, program and frequency commitments, iSpot reported.
“iSpot is proud to achieve this milestone, as it signifies not just an historic accomplishment for our company, but one that the entire industry can benefit from. Having trusted, transparent and independently verified measurement starts with being able to deliver data —reliably, quickly and at scale — to drive value to the entire media ecosystem as it shifts from program-based measurement to an ad-centric model,” says Muller.
George W. Ivie, MRC executive director and CEO added that “iSpot’s newly accredited ad occurrence reporting helps to serve a crucial market need, and users can now have assurance that it meets the high bar necessary to achieve MRC accreditation.”
The MRC accreditation comes on the heels of the recent announcement that U.S. Joint Industry Committee (JIC) granted conditional certification to Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp.
JIC, which is made up of major buyers and sellers, said that the the conditional certification is part of their effort to improve new cross-platform solutions and enable more competition in a multi-currency marketplace.
