Advanced TV consortium OpenAP is debuting a new clean room solution to help advertisers more efficiently target consumers in a privacy-safe environment. OpenAP worked with cloud company Snowflake to launch the solution, dubbed OpenAP Data Hub, to give advertisers access to cross-platform data in which to plan, target and measure TV. 

As part of the initiative, OpenAP plans to build out four bespoke environments for TV programmers, measurement providers, data providers and marketers. The first phase of the rollout is slated for October and will allow for data exchanges between national programmers and advertisers. Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery will be among the first programmers to participate.

Data clean rooms have become increasingly popular data exchange solutions for programmers amid the impending demise of the third-party cookie and other data crackdowns. NBCUniversal, Disney and Roku, among others, have all launched data clean rooms to allow advertisers to tap into their first-party data in a way that’s secure and use it in conjunction with their own data. While individual publishers are building their own data clean rooms, OpenAP's solution, similar to its approach to audience targeting at its inception, is to create a central solution that allows brands to apply their data across multiple network groups.

In December, OpenAP launched its cross-platform measurement framework XPm to broaden the measurement options available to brands and give them a more holistic view of digital and TV audiences. (OpenAP expects to do more than $500 million of measurement deals across XPm this year.) The OpenAP Data Hub builds on that initiative in anticipation of increased scale for both advanced advertising and OpenAP's cross-platform measurement framework, said David Levy, CEO, OpenAP.

“We're going to be moving and transitioning a $70 billion industry from more traditional audiences to creating ID-based audiences that can be measured in a cross-platform way,” said Levy. “What that requires is data to be moved and resolved today between all these different companies.”

One of the biggest challenges in the data exchange is that it takes time to move data between different companies, Levy said. There are also privacy concerns. OpenAP is launching its clean room solution so that "the creation of audiences and the measurement itself that we're producing can all happen in a federated cleanroom environment without that data ever having to leave the data owners' hands,” said Levy.

“In order for there to be cross-platform measurement done at scale, you need easy, privacy-safe access to programmer data,” Levy said. “With the ability of the clean room, you can enable more functionality without giving up any privacy.”

OpenAP doesn’t have a specified timeline for when the other data solutions will begin rolling out. It’s currently focused on working with Snowflake and its programmer partners to build the programmer environment first. After that, it will work with marketers and measurement providers to develop solutions that meet their needs, said Levy.