To get to that point, all the alternative services will need to be tested by all the networks, along with blind tests by groups like CIMM, in addition to getting accredited by industry watchdog Media Rating Council (MRC). The fact that media conglomerates are incentivized to solve the measurement problem by integrating services could help the process along.

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Jane Clarke

CEO, CIMM see

“They don’t win if they have to use 16 measuring partners on a campaign, and those measuring partners don’t talk to each other or integrate,” Kelly said. “There’s billions of dollars on the line from bad measurement.”

As part of its moves to avoid jeopardizing ad dollars, NBCUniversal began the year by planting its flag on alternative measurement, naming iSpot.tv as a preferred measurement partner in a multiyear pact that touches across its One Platform portfolio. The results of better measurement speak for themselves. Despite having a 14% lighter ad load, the Olympics has delivered 247% more ad impressions per unit than the other three broadcast networks, per data NBCU emailed to Marketing Dive. Since the start of the Olympics, NBCU has delivered more than 2 billion impressions, with strong measures of engagement, brand recall and message memorability. 

Other media companies have begun their own tests and experiments, with the upfronts serving an opportunity to present some of these alternatives, and have an incentive to coalesce around a few options. In kind, advertisers are looking for not just accurate measurement of eyeballs but also of outcomes — more akin to what they receive from the duopoly of Google and Facebook — and are pushing media giants for necessary changes. But even with various stakeholders aligned, the future of measurement is still fuzzy, even if the end goal is clear: accurate measurement, at scale, without the type of siloed dashboards advertisers are used to.

“Television measurement is really quite complicated,” Clarke said. “People act like this isn’t rocket science, but it’s getting close.”