# Measurement Currencies
> Technology profile in The State of Streaming directory.
- Profile type: Technology
- Profile status: baseline
- Last updated: 2026-05-03T00:00:00.000Z
- Canonical URL: https://thestateofstreaming.com/tech/measurement-currencies/
- Also known as: TV measurement currencies, audience measurement currencies, alternative currencies, multi-currency measurement, currency providers
## Summary
TV measurement currencies are the audience-data sources that buyers and sellers contractually agree to use to value impressions and reconcile delivery. After six decades of Nielsen monopoly, the post-2023 market has multiple certified currencies — Nielsen, Comscore, VideoAmp, iSpot.tv — competing alongside attention-based providers and the ANA's Aquila cross-media initiative.
## Definition
A measurement currency is the audience-data source that an advertiser and a media seller contractually name in an insertion order as the basis for valuing ad impressions, guaranteeing delivery, and reconciling the bill at the end of a campaign. For decades, Nielsen panel ratings were the sole national currency for U.S. television. Beginning in 2023, the U.S. Joint Industry Committee — a buyer/seller forum — began certifying alternative providers as transactable currencies, and major broadcasters and holding companies started writing multi-currency upfront deals. The category now includes hybrid panel-plus-big-data providers, smart-TV-data-led measurement firms, and an emerging tier of attention-based currencies that score impressions on viewer engagement rather than reach alone.
## Market size
$3B in guaranteed currency transactions in 2024 (one provider, VideoAmp) — an 880% YoY increase, signaling material multi-currency adoption (as of 2024-12-19). Source: VideoAmp — https://videoamp.com/press/videoamp-leads-the-industry-to-mass-adoption-of-advanced-currencies-closes-2024-with-3-billion-in-currency-transactions-and-complete-jic-certification/

## Key trends

- Multi-currency upfront deals replacing the single-Nielsen monopoly: Paramount, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery and the major holdcos all now write currency deals with at least one alt provider alongside Nielsen.
- The U.S. Joint Industry Committee (JIC) is now the de facto certifying body — its 'Guidelines for Transactability' and 699-test mid-term audit set the bar for what qualifies as a transactable currency.
- Hybrid Big Data + Panel methodology — Nielsen's MRC-accredited approach — is becoming the methodology standard, with Comscore extending its certification into Personified Demographics in July 2025.
- Attention metrics (Adelaide AU, TVision) are emerging as a third currency layer, transacted via PMP guarantees rather than as primary reach-and-frequency currencies.
- ANA Aquila — the for-profit cross-media measurement venture spun out of the ANA in 2024 — is targeting beta in H2 2025 and full launch in 2026, with Kantar as panel operator and Samba TV as streaming-video data partner.


## Major players

- nielsen — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/nielsen/
- videoamp — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/videoamp/
- ispot tv — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/ispot-tv/
- comscore — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/comscore/
- samba tv — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/samba-tv/
- viant technology — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/viant-technology/
- kantar — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/kantar/
- association of national advertisers — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/association-of-national-advertisers/


## Key facts

- The MRC granted full accreditation to Nielsen's Big Data + Panel national TV measurement in January 2025 — the first hybrid panel/big-data product accredited at person-level. — Nielsen: https://www.nielsen.com/news-center/2025/2025-the-media-rating-council-accredits-nielsens-innovative-big-data-panel-national-tv-measurement/
- VideoAmp closed 2024 with approximately $3 billion in guaranteed currency transactions — an 880% year-over-year increase — across NBCUniversal, Paramount, Warner Bros. Discovery, all major agency holding companies, and 1,000+ advertisers. — VideoAmp: https://videoamp.com/press/videoamp-leads-the-industry-to-mass-adoption-of-advanced-currencies-closes-2024-with-3-billion-in-currency-transactions-and-complete-jic-certification/
- The U.S. Joint Industry Committee, formed in January 2023, completed a mid-term audit of Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp ahead of the 2025–2026 broadcast season, applying more than 699 tests across three primary deal types and reaffirming all three as currencies of record. — U.S. Joint Industry Committee: https://www.usjointindustrycommittee.com/news/jic-upfront-currency-analysis-2025-2026
- Comscore received expanded JIC certification for national TV measurement including Personified Demographics in July 2025, making it transactable across all JIC classifications for national currency use cases. — Comscore: https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/07/10/3113217/0/en/Comscore-Achieves-Full-JIC-Certification-for-National-TV-Measurement-Including-Persons-Based-Data.html
- The ANA spun off its Cross-Media Measurement initiative as a for-profit entity, Aquila LLC, in 2024; Aquila's Kantar-operated single-source calibration panel is installed in 1,000+ U.S. homes and targeting expansion to 5,000, with advertiser trials beginning in 2025 and full launch in 2026. — ANA: https://www.ana.net/content/show/id/pr-2025-03-aquila


## Related

- nielsen (incumbent currency provider) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/nielsen/
- videoamp (alt currency provider) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/videoamp/
- ispot tv (alt currency provider) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/ispot-tv/
- comscore (alt currency provider) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/comscore/
- samba tv (smart-TV data provider; Aquila partner) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/samba-tv/
- viant technology (parent of TVision attention measurement) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/viant-technology/
- kantar (Aquila panel operator) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/kantar/
- association of national advertisers (Aquila parent / Cross-Media Measurement convener) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/association-of-national-advertisers/
- adelaide (attention-based currency provider) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/adelaide/
- tvision insights (attention + co-viewing measurement) — https://thestateofstreaming.com/companies/tvision-insights/


## External coverage

- 2024-12-17 — U.S. Joint Industry Committee: U.S. Joint Industry Committee Prepares for 2025/2026 Upfront with Continued Analysis of New Currencies (https://www.usjointindustrycommittee.com/news/jic-upfront-currency-analysis-2025-2026)
- 2025-01-22 — Nielsen: The Media Rating Council Accredits Nielsen's Innovative Big Data + Panel National TV Measurement (https://www.nielsen.com/news-center/2025/2025-the-media-rating-council-accredits-nielsens-innovative-big-data-panel-national-tv-measurement/)
- 2025-03-13 — ANA: ANA Aquila LLC Achieves Major Breakthroughs, Advancing Its Cross-Media Measurement Initiative (https://www.ana.net/content/show/id/pr-2025-03-aquila)
- Variety: Comscore, iSpot, VideoAmp Get New Nod from TV Measurement Committee (https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/comscore-ispot-videoamp-tv-measurement-committee-1236451498/)
- AdExchanger: A Look Inside Aquila, The ANA's Still-Cooking, Cross-Media Measurement Platform (https://www.adexchanger.com/measurement/a-look-inside-aquila-the-anas-still-cooking-cross-media-measurement-platform/)

## Profile
For most of the last sixty years, "TV currency" had a single answer: Nielsen. The panel-based ratings firm sat between every advertiser and every broadcaster, and its numbers were the agreed truth that determined what an impression was worth and whether a campaign had delivered. That arrangement is over.

The post-monopoly market has three distinct tiers. The first is the incumbent — Nielsen — which in January 2025 won MRC accreditation for its hybrid Big Data + Panel methodology, the first person-level hybrid product to clear that bar, and is staging the full Nielsen ONE cross-platform rebuild on top of it. The second is the U.S. Joint Industry Committee's certified alt-currency cohort — Comscore, iSpot.tv, and VideoAmp — each of which has cleared the JIC's 699-test transactability audit and now holds active currency contracts with Paramount, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery, and the major holding companies. VideoAmp alone closed 2024 at roughly $3 billion in guaranteed currency transactions, an 880% year-over-year jump that defines what mass adoption of an alt-currency now looks like in dollar terms.

The third tier is structurally different. Attention-based currencies — Adelaide's AU metric, TVision's person-level attention panels (now inside Viant after the 2024 acquisition) — don't compete with Nielsen on reach-and-frequency reconciliation. They sit alongside it as a quality signal, transacted through programmatic CTV private marketplaces and attention-guaranteed deals rather than as the primary upfront currency.

Looming over all three tiers is Aquila, the for-profit entity the ANA spun out of its Cross-Media Measurement initiative in 2024. With Kantar operating the single-source calibration panel, Samba TV providing streaming-video data, and a stated 2026 full-launch target, Aquila is the buy-side's bid to build a measurement infrastructure it owns rather than rents. Whether it ships on time, and whether the holdcos that funded it actually transact on it once it does, is the open question that will shape the next phase of the multi-currency market.

## Tags

- measurement
- currency
- Nielsen
- VideoAmp
- iSpot
- Comscore
- ANA
- Cross-Media Measurement
- Aquila
- JIC
- attention
- upfronts

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