The Media Rating Council (MRC) is moving closer to a single standard for cross screen video ad measurement.

Two points of contention:
1) Duration-weighted impression (DWI) — This would give more credit to video ads with a longer view time.

2) More pixels in view — The current standard is 50% of the video in view for at least 2 consecutive seconds. The new standard would raise this to 100% in view for at least 2consecutive seconds.

Our thought: This is happening regardless of an updated MRC standard. Brands such as IBM and HP are already using custom viewability standards that are more aggressive. For example, IBM only counts views where 100% of the video is viewable for half of the video length (15s of 30s ad).

Flashback: Media buyers (again) shrug off Facebook’s latest video metrics screwup

Quote from Harry Harcus — Managing Direction, UK and Pan-Regional @ Xaxis:
“Viewability in itself isn’t quite enough. We are keen to be able to measure a transactionable media buy for clients. So rather than clients buying on a CPM or even for viewability, they buy on a cost-per-5-second exposure — 5 seconds being a sweet spot of time, based on the research we’ve done for brand uplift metrics. And for video, we are saying to clients, ‘Don’t buy the CPM, buy the cost for completed view.”

More #1: Duration Weighting In Video Ad Measurement: Time Matters

More #2: The Attention Economy Crisis: The Future of Content, Commerce and Culture