Aquila partners with Samba TV for streaming measurement capabilities

Aquila announced on October 22, 2025, a partnership with Samba TV to integrate streaming viewership data into its cross-media measurement platform. The collaboration addresses streaming television's measurement gap by combining Samba TV's first-party viewing data with digital exposure information from Google, Meta, Amazon, and TikTok.

The partnership represents a technical advancement for Aquila's measurement initiative, which the Association of National Advertisers subsidiary positions as the industry's first advertiser-owned, independent solution capable of deduplicating audiences across streaming services, linear television, and major digital platforms. Streaming viewership has grown 46 percent year-over-year, bolstered by ad-supported tiers at lower prices.

"We are thrilled to join our friends at Aquila, which include some of the largest advertisers and media platforms, to crack the code of cross-platform measurement," said Samba TV CEO and Co-founder Ashwin Navin. "Advertisers can no longer afford to measure media with currencies that treat streaming and digital as an afterthought to linear TV in their methodology."

The collaboration will progress through multiple phases designed for precision and scalability. The first phase, beginning in the fourth quarter of 2025, focuses on data ingestion and integration. The full solution will provide live, campaign-level measurement capabilities and is expected to be released in the second half of 2026.

Technical infrastructure and methodology

Aquila preserves core innovations from Project Halo, an open-source framework proposed by World Federation of Advertisers members. The technical foundation includes privacy-preserving techniques such as secure multi-party computation and the Virtual People Framework. The Virtual People Framework utilizes advanced models to generate synthetic data for audience matching and projection, delivering insights without compromising privacy standards.

Samba TV's first-party dataset spans television, digital, and streaming channels, powered by data from millions of opted-in connected televisions and billions of web signals across more than 50 countries. The company's independent, cross-platform measurement provides advertisers and media companies with what it describes as a unified view of the entire consumer journey.

"Completing the cross-media measurement puzzle requires a best-in-class partner for every piece of the ecosystem," said Aquila CEO Bill Tucker. "As we work to ensure Aquila encompasses as many advertisers and streaming platforms as possible, Samba TV was the clear choice to address the complexities of the streaming landscape."

The integration complements existing data sources within Aquila's platform, including linear television data from Comscore and digital exposure data from major walled gardens. This combination enables what the companies describe as a uniquely holistic view of audience reach across multiple screens, from smartphones to living room televisions.

Industry context and measurement challenges

Cross-media measurement has emerged as a critical infrastructure requirement for advertising effectiveness in increasingly fragmented media environments. Audiences move across platforms and devices, making it essential to capture engagement data accurately without double-counting individuals who encounter advertisements across multiple channels.

The advertising industry has long grappled with accurately measuring unique reach across fragmented media environments. Traditional measurement approaches often count the same viewer multiple times across different platforms, inflating reach numbers and reducing campaign effectiveness insights. Deduplicated reach measurement addresses this challenge by calculating the total number of unique individuals exposed to advertising campaigns while eliminating duplicate counting across multiple platforms, devices, and channels.

Major platforms have developed their own cross-media measurement capabilities throughout 2024 and 2025. Google Ads introduced Cross-Media Reach measurement in June 2024, providing advertisers with deduplicated reach and frequency insights across YouTube and traditional television. Nielsen integrated TikTok data into its Nielsen ONE measurement system in December 2024, marking the first time advertisers could directly compare campaign performance across multiple platforms using Nielsen's framework.

The measurement landscape has also seen independent providers expand capabilities. AudienceProject launched direct Netflix integration for campaign measurement across five European markets in October 2025, enabling cross-media campaign analysis. These developments indicate growing international demand for independent cross-platform measurement capabilities as media consumption fragments across multiple channels and devices.

Aquila's broader development timeline

Aquila announced groundbreaking advances toward its cross-media measurement solution on March 3, 2025. The subsidiary successfully launched a calibration panel with Kantar Media in more than 1,000 homes nationwide, with plans to expand to 5,000 homes. According to the March announcement, Kantar Media was contracted in 2024 to develop this cross-media calibration panel, which will serve to personify data sets and train privacy-preserving technology.

The calibration panel enables accurate, deduplicated reach and frequency reports for advertisers. As of the March announcement, the panel had been installed in more than 1,000 homes, with expansion plans to reach 5,000 homes by the first quarter of 2026. This single-source calibration panel serves as a foundational component of Aquila's measurement methodology.

Accenture is developing the Aquila technology solution and integrating it with leading advertising platforms. This technical infrastructure will provide advertisers and their agencies with a secure and seamless interface to access their brand campaigns' deduplicated reach and frequency metrics.

"Aquila is on track to deliver to advertisers a cross-media measurement solution that will unlock substantial value for all stakeholders and deliver an improved ad experience for all audiences and segments through transparent measurement," said Tucker during the March announcement. "This has been the industry's number one priority, and we've reached these significant milestones in partnership with our strategic partners."

The initiative has received support from major brand funders and global platforms. Nearly 30 ANA member advertisers have committed matching funding and begun trial testing of the data, according to presentations from Aquila CEO Tucker at the ANA's measurement and analytics conference in September.

Management and organizational structure

Aquila fortified its management team throughout 2025, positioning itself as a market-ready force. The leadership team includes Tina Daniels as President and Chief Operating Officer, who previously served as Managing Director of Agency and Brand Measurement Analytics at Google. Jed Meyer joined as Chief Revenue Officer, having previously held leadership positions at Nielsen, Ebiquity, Google, and Omnicom.

Josh Chasin, founder of KnotSimpler Inc., joined as Aquila's Chief Research Officer on a fractional basis. Chasin previously held leadership positions at VideoAmp and Comscore, bringing expertise in measurement methodology to the organization.

The cross-media measurement initiative is supported by the ANA board, the ANA's 600-plus global CMO Growth Council, and the ANA's Media and Measurement Council. Aquila estimates the endeavor will eliminate 50 billion dollars in waste due to excess frequency over a three-year period. The platform is expected to deliver improved media productivity and an elevated advertising experience for audiences through transparent measurement.

Streaming measurement significance

Streaming television has been described as a significant blind spot in cross-media measurement for years. Connected TV's share of media budgets is projected to double from 14 percent in 2023 to 28 percent in 2025, according to industry projections. Traditional linear television viewership has declined in many markets, while streaming consumption has increased substantially.

Research indicates that 72 percent of marketers plan increased programmatic investment in streaming channels. Streaming platforms now command 46 percent of all television viewing according to Nielsen's measurement data from June 2025, while traditional broadcast and cable continue losing ground to on-demand alternatives.

The shift in viewing patterns has created measurement complexity that extends beyond simple audience counting. Duration-based measurement approaches demonstrate streaming television's value proposition more accurately than traditional impression-based metrics. Index Exchange's September 2025 implementation of duration-based reporting shows how time-aware measurement values 30-second streaming slots appropriately compared to shorter placements.

Cross-media measurement has demonstrated substantial impact on advertising efficiency in deployed markets. Research conducted with Heineken revealed that digital channels delivered 19.4 times more efficient reach compared to traditional television campaigns, prompting the brewery to increase digital investment allocation from 30 percent to over 42 percent of their media budget. The study also documented a 22 percentage point lift in brand awareness when campaigns combined exposure across both television and Meta platforms.

Privacy and transparency framework

Aquila is the commercial venture in the United States market based on Project Halo, an open-source, transparent, privacy-centric and pro-competition framework. The framework was proposed by World Federation of Advertisers members and a community of stakeholders, including digital walled gardens.

The technical implementation deploys the Halo open source cross-media measurement architecture and aligns with the World Federation of Advertisers' advertiser-centric principles. Aquila joins the United Kingdom's Origin, being led by the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers, as the second market to implement the Halo cross-media measurement framework.

Aquila is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Association of National Advertisers working on behalf of brand owners to create a measurement platform delivering deduplicated reach and frequency across all forms of digital and broadcast media. As a marketer-led initiative, Aquila is designed to address the needs of advertisers, especially for standardization across media channels, platforms, and types, to enable better cross-media measurement and planning.

The partnership with Samba TV represents another component in building comprehensive measurement capabilities. By integrating streaming viewership data with digital exposure information from major platforms and linear television data, Aquila aims to provide advertisers with an independent, objective view of their true audience reach across all major digital and television platforms.

Market implications for advertisers

For advertisers operating across multiple platforms, the Aquila-Samba TV integration addresses fundamental challenges in measuring streaming campaign effectiveness. As advertising budgets shift toward streaming platforms, marketers require reliable, independent data to justify these investments and optimize performance.

The measurement solution supports both campaign planning phases and real-time optimization decisions throughout campaign lifecycles. Advertisers can track how many people within their target demographics view advertisements across platforms, with frequency metrics revealing how often those individuals encounter the campaigns. These data points help media buyers identify potential over-exposure or under-delivery issues during active campaigns.

Industry transparency challenges remain significant across programmatic advertising channels. According to the ANA Programmatic Media Supply Chain Transparency Report, only 36 percent of post-transaction programmatic budgets reach valid, viewable, measurable, and non-fraudulent impressions. The report emphasizes that marketers face transparency limitations without log-level data access across downstream partners.

The Aquila measurement framework aims to address these transparency concerns through its marketer-led structure and emphasis on standardization across media channels, platforms, and types. The initiative has fostered unprecedented collaboration between marketers, platforms, and broadcasters to develop a privacy-safe, first-party-based, tagless, cross-media measurement solution.

Implementation timeline and availability

Advertiser trials are set to begin throughout 2025, with the platform expected to launch in early 2026 according to previous announcements. The Samba TV integration follows this timeline, with the first phase beginning in the fourth quarter of 2025 and full campaign-level measurement capabilities expected in the second half of 2026.

The multi-phase approach allows for precision testing and scalability validation before full deployment. Initial data ingestion and integration work will establish technical connections between Samba TV's streaming viewership data and Aquila's measurement platform. Subsequent phases will add live measurement capabilities and campaign-level reporting functionality.

The Association of National Advertisers represents more than 1,600 member companies connecting to a global network of insights and resources. Member companies represent 20,000 brands and 400 billion dollars in annual marketing investment. Through the Aquila subsidiary, the ANA aims to empower marketers with measurement tools that drive growth and create lasting impact for their organizations and the broader advertising industry.

Timeline

• 2024: Kantar Media contracted to develop cross-media calibration panel for Aquila
• March 3, 2025: Aquila announces major breakthroughs, calibration panel launched in 1,000+ homes
• March 3, 2025: Management team expanded with Tina Daniels, Jed Meyer, and Josh Chasin appointments
• September 2025: Nearly 30 ANA member advertisers commit funding and begin trial testing
• October 22, 2025: Samba TV partnership announced for streaming measurement integration
• Q4 2025: First phase begins with data ingestion and integration
• Q1 2026: Calibration panel expansion target of 5,000 homes
• Early 2026: Platform launch expected with advertiser trials
• H2 2026: Full solution with live, campaign-level measurement capabilities expected
• Related: Cross-media measurement drives major platform integrations across industry
• Related: Independent measurement providers expand streaming capabilities globally
• Related: Nielsen integrates major platforms for unified measurement
• Related: Streaming viewership growth drives measurement demand
• Related: Cross-media measurement demonstrates efficiency gains for major brands

Summary

Who: Aquila, an Association of National Advertisers subsidiary, partnered with Samba TV, a global leader in AI-driven media intelligence. The collaboration involves major digital platforms including Google, Meta, Amazon, and TikTok, along with Comscore for linear television data and Kantar Media for calibration panel management. Nearly 30 ANA member advertisers have committed funding and participate in trial testing.

What: Integration of Samba TV's first-party streaming viewership data into Aquila's cross-media measurement platform to provide deduplicated reach and frequency measurement across streaming services, linear television, and major digital walled gardens. The solution combines privacy-preserving techniques including secure multi-party computation and the Virtual People Framework, utilizing advanced models to generate synthetic data for audience matching and projection without compromising privacy standards.

When: Partnership announced October 22, 2025, with the first phase of data ingestion and integration beginning in the fourth quarter of 2025. Full solution providing live, campaign-level measurement capabilities is expected to be released in the second half of 2026, following advertiser trials set to begin in early 2026.

Where: The implementation occurs across the United States market through Aquila's measurement platform, which serves as the commercial venture based on the World Federation of Advertisers' Project Halo framework. Samba TV's data spans more than 50 countries, providing first-party signals from millions of opted-in connected televisions and billions of web signals globally, though the Aquila implementation focuses on the U.S. market alongside the United Kingdom's parallel Origin initiative.

Why: Streaming television has been a significant blind spot in cross-media measurement despite 46 percent year-over-year viewership growth. Advertisers require independent, objective views of true audience reach across all major digital and television platforms to address audience fragmentation challenges. The initiative aims to eliminate 50 billion dollars in waste due to excess frequency over three years while delivering improved media productivity through transparent, standardized measurement across channels, addressing the industry's number one priority according to Aquila CEO Bill Tucker.