SAN JOSE, Calif. & BELLEVUE, Wash.—Roku, Inc. has announced an expanded measurement partnership with iSpot.tv, the cross-platform TV measurement company.
The agreement, which the companies are calling a “first-of-its-kind arrangement”, will involve each company sharing measurement capabilities and working together to improve the overall streaming advertising TV ecosystem.
The partnership was also applauded by some media buyers.
Mike Fisher, executive director of investment innovation at GroupM U.S. said that "TV streaming advertising has undoubtedly made a huge leap forward with this partnership between Roku and iSpot, two of the leaders in the industry. Roku’s vast audience combined with the measurement capabilities of iSpot will allow our brand partners to optimize their advertising with confidence in our accuracy.”
As part of the expanded partnership, iSpot will become a preferred third-party measurement partner for Roku, offering direct and programmatic advertisers fast, reliable metrics that demonstrate the unique reach, frequency, verified ad exposures, and outcomes delivered across ads running on the Roku platform. In addition, iSpot will integrate Roku’s Advertising Watermark to validate the authenticity of video ad inventory originating on the Roku platform.
In addition, iSpot will gain access to Roku’s exclusive, authenticated audience information. That data will strengthen iSpot’s ability to connect audiences deterministically across linear TV and streaming on Roku. The partnership will also bolster iSpot Data Connect, its next-generation audience measurement infrastructure, which powers currency and outcome measurement for the industry.
The partnership will also open the ability for marketers to measure accurately Roku’s advanced ad formats that span beyond video, such as Roku City brand integrations and Roku Marquee ads.
“Roku wants to use its unique assets built on the foundation of its massive footprint of 81M+ streaming households to further the measurement across all streaming channels and linear TV, to help solve for the problem of fragmentation in the industry,” said Louqman Parampath, vice president of product management, Roku. “Together with iSpot, we believe improving measurement for the entire ecosystem will help drive better results for advertisers, while also driving more yield for publishers.”
“This is a game-changer for the industry – not just for iSpot or Roku, but for the entire advertising ecosystem looking to harness the scale and power of the leading TV streaming platform and capitalize on the most robust streaming measurement,” said Sean Muller, founder and CEO, iSpot. “It’s also critical that marketers have the most reliable and actionable audience measurement to base decisions on, as they shift budgets from traditional TV to streaming.”
