Paramount vowed in Cannes to not support any TV measurement currency that doesn’t get certified by the Joint Industry Committee, which could put a dent in the dominance of Nielsen should it stick with its stance against participating in the process.

But otherwise, despite much talk about new TV measurement currencies, opinions were mixed on how much they’ll really figure into upfront deals this year. And while JIC members, including sellers and agency buyers, won praise at the group’s summit, there were also pointed questions about how much the proposed streaming data sharing system is going to cost measurement providers.

Here are some key measurement takeaways from the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

Halley lays down the law

Nielsen and Paramount were strange boat fellows in Cannes, their yachts parked side by side in the harbor. But the Paramount folks didn’t lob anything over the side at Nielsen, by all reports.

It was a different story at the JIC Summit on Thursday though, where John Halley, president of advertising for Paramount, made a not-so-veiled threat to stop using Nielsen as a currency. That came after Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group announced it would replace Nielsen with VideoAmp as its primary currency.

“Paramount will support every new measurement company that receives JIC certification,” Halley said. “And we will only support those companies who receive certification. We have no intention of supporting an alternative requirements process.”

Following the session, a Paramount spokeswoman said that Halley's statement applies to new currencies, including Nielsen One, which is expected to be available for use next year. 

As of now, Nielsen isn’t participating in the JIC certification process, though that could still change. Karthik Rao, CEO of Nielsen Audience Measurement, said the disclosure of the extensive rubric for certification had met much of what he was looking for. And Nielsen remains in talks with OpenAP, which is administering the JIC.

Read more: How the JIC will certify Nielsen alternatives

JIC measurement is coming fast

Despite many doubts about how quickly the JIC could develop a federated, privacy-safe clean room for Paramount, NBCUniversal, Warner Bros. Discovery, Fox, Roku and more to share streaming audience data, Halley predicted it would be ready by the end of the year.

“This is real,” he said. “This is not vaporware. We’re not just talking about it. There’s a product that is going to be in market by the end of the year that is going to fundamentally transform this business.”

New currency in 2023 remains in question

Viewpoints vary on how much interest there really is in trading on non-Nielsen currencies in the current upfront, though.

“As for whether advertisers will make a big shift from Nielsen 25-54 to VideoAmp anything, it’s hit and miss,” said Jon Steinlauf, U.S. chief advertising sales officer of Warner Bros. Discovery, in a fireside chat at VideoAmp’s conference in Cannes on Wednesday. 

“It’s not the best upfront we’ve seen in terms of volume, and I think part of that is measurement issues,” Steinlauf said. “I would say what’s holding down volume in this marketplace now is the standard measurement company.”

Steinlauf said he believes that the company (Nielsen) is showing an older audience and more frequency of ad viewership in the older demographics than is accurate, or than what VideoAmp data shows.

“When the economy is not working in your favor and then advertisers are seeing audiences shifting past 55,” he said, “it’s a double whammy.”

Michael Piner, executive VP of advanced advertising for IPG’s MediaHub, was more bullish, at least on new currencies.

“I think the debate is over,” Piner said. “I think we are moving to a multi-currency world. I think we’re moving from a testing phase to actually implementing beyond just small campaign-by-campaign tests to actually moving the ball and guaranteeing on an alternative currency.”

But another agency executive, who spoke on background, said clients have generally expressed little interest in alternative currency use in this upfront. The agency executive said volume is weak but that there’s a general belief many companies may be holding budgets in reserve given lingering doubts about a recession. Those budgets could make for a robust scatter market, where she said new currencies are more likely to be used.

Byron Allen will pay Warner Bros. Discovery’s Nielsen bill

Speaking at the VideoAmp conference in Cannes following news that Allen Media Group is switching to VideoAmp from Nielsen as its primary currency, Allen jokingly promised to pay WBD’s Nielsen bill, based on his experience that VideoAmp shows audiences for his company’s programming is two to three times higher than Nielsen does.

“If all these guys start doubling or tripling their ratings, there’s less left for me,” Allen said, drawing laughs. “I will pay Warner Bros. Discovery’s Nielsen bills so their ratings don’t go up.”

Cost of JIC server questioned

Allen will not, however, pay for anyone’s JIC clean room costs, and that may be a problem.

Ed Davis, president of product and operations for OpenAP, delved into great detail on how the JIC’s Snowflake-based Streaming Data Server will work, including privacy compliance tools aimed at showing audiences of no fewer than 500,000 people. Buyers and sellers will be able to query that streaming database. But safeguards will prevent a series of slightly varied queries aimed at getting thinner slices that might expose more personal data, he said.

While other participants were impressed by the system, iSpot.tv CEO Sean Muller was concerned about the cost and who will pay. “This is an awesome architecture, but super expensive,” he said.

Much of the cost will be borne by measurement companies, Davis and OpenAP CEO David Levy said, but they’re also taking steps to minimize it.

“There are a lot of ways to dramatically reduce the cost of these queries, and that’s part of the reason we want to execute queries on behalf of customers initially,” Davis said.

Levy said the JIC is being as transparent as possible about the system as early as possible so no one is surprised. But he said, “We're going to have to live with the fact that this all is going to cost more money in order to protect consumer privacy.”