VAB Launches Measurement Innovation Task Force

In the US, recent Nielsen critic the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) has launched the Measurement Innovation Task Force, comprising a group of research, analytics and insights execs who it says will design and deliver best practices and standards for the national TV ad industry.

The launch follows VAB's recent call for the MRC (Media Rating Council) to suspend Nielsen's accreditation because of 'chronic underreporting', which VAB said had given an exaggerated picture of 2020 Covid TV usage declines and resulted in inaccurate reporting for nearly 10,000 homes.

VAB's new task force will engage with cross-industry initiatives including the ANA's Cross-Media Measurement Initiative, OpenAP's OpenID, and NBCUniversal's new cross-industry Measurement Innovation Forum. Last month, NBCUniversal's EVP of Measurement & Impact Kelly Abcarian, who previously spent sixteen years at Nielsen, led her employer's call for development of a new way to measure TV streaming audiences, as she described ad measurement as 'outdated'.

Commenting on the task force launch, VAB President and CEO Sean Cunningham (pictured) said: 'As each of these complementary initiatives explore, evaluate, and expand new measurement yardsticks, our new task force will provide regular feedback, questions, and perspective on behalf of every VAB member company. By combining the insights of existing initiatives and the involvement of the task force, we can finally build a future that works for our entire industry - and the VAB is certainly the natural bridge between all of these vital efforts'.

Web site: www.thevab.com .