DoubleVerify urges streaming industry to adopt transparency standards

DoubleVerify issued a call to action on December 4, 2025, urging the streaming television industry to accelerate adoption of transparency and measurement standards that have languished despite years of availability. Todd Randak, General Manager of CTV at DoubleVerify, characterized the current state as an ecosystem operating without the transparency and accountability advertisers expect across other digital channels.

The appeal comes as measurement adoption in Connected TV remains significantly lower than in other digital advertising environments, despite streaming television advertising spending reaching $33.35 billion in 2025. Randak emphasized that while viewing habits have shifted dramatically, measurement capabilities have not kept pace with consumption patterns.

According to the statement, streaming TV faces constraints from laws such as the Video Privacy Protection Act and platform-specific rules that restrict access to content-level data. Publishers often cannot share the signals advertisers rely on to verify media quality, ensure contextual relevance, or optimize spending. The industry still lacks scalable, standardized implementation to validate that CTV advertisements are truly viewable and delivered to powered-on televisions.

"These gaps undermine trust at a time when transparency is more critical than ever," Randak stated in the announcement. "It is time for our industry to work together to close the remaining transparency and measurement gaps in streaming."

Industry Adoption Remains Inconsistent

DoubleVerify positioned two existing capabilities as templates for industry-wide adoption rather than new product launches. The Certified Transparent Streaming program and support for Open Measurement SDK for CTV represent frameworks the company argues should become standard practice across streaming platforms, publishers, and measurement providers.

The Certified Transparent Streaming program uses clean room infrastructure allowing publishers to contribute program- and episode-level information while maintaining individual-level data under their control. Only aggregated, advertiser-ready outputs are shared. Publishers must demonstrate capability to contribute content-level information in controlled, compliant environments while meeting criteria for data quality, consistency, and transparency.

According to the announcement, the program helps publishers incentivize continued advertising spending by providing trusted program-level transparency, increase yield by demonstrating premium context and quality, reduce operational friction through fast compliant reporting, and maintain control of sensitive data while meeting regulatory requirements.

DoubleVerify characterized these efforts as establishing "a consistent, reliable foundation for transparency that aligns with advertiser expectations and publisher needs." Advertisers have requested verified program- and episode-level reporting in streaming TV for years, but regulatory constraints have prevented widespread publisher adoption of data-sharing practices common in other digital channels.

Viewability Standards Face Adoption Challenges

Open Measurement SDK for CTV brings the industry standard measurement framework from mobile and desktop environments into streaming television platforms. The Open Measurement SDK, developed by IAB Tech Lab, provides standardized viewability measurement capabilities that multiple measurement vendors can implement consistently.

DoubleVerify has supported CTV viewability measurement through proprietary solutions for several years. The company launched Fully On-Screen capabilities in 2021, representing verification that advertisements played fully on-screen while televisions were powered on. The company earned Media Rating Council accreditation for CTV viewability in April 2024, though industry-wide adoption of standardized viewability remains limited.

Research from DoubleVerify indicates over one-third of Connected TV advertising impressions deliver in environments where advertisements play while televisions remain powered off. This phenomenon contributes an estimated $1 billion in annual wasted advertising spending within the CTV market, according to company data.

"Viewability in CTV has historically been challenging to measure because advertisers lacked a scalable, standardized way to confirm whether their ads met viewability criteria," according to the December 4 statement. Open Measurement SDK aims to scale viewability coverage by enabling advertisers to monitor and address spending wasted on non-viewable impressions and TV-off environments.

The framework provides consistent measurement signals comparable across campaigns, platforms, and measurement providers—capabilities that remain inconsistently implemented across the streaming ecosystem despite technical availability.

Publisher Support Signals Willingness

DPG Media and TelevisaUnivision provided statements supporting standardized measurement adoption for Connected TV environments. Maarten Schoonvliet, Project Manager Digital Sales Development at DPG Media, stated that standardized measurement proves essential for streaming's future. "DPG Media is proud to adopt the OM SDK for CTV because we believe in the quality of our inventory," Schoonvliet said. "This standard gives advertisers the consistent, comparable viewability signals they need to invest with confidence, creating a more open and trusted ecosystem for the entire industry."

Bethany Hillman, Senior Vice President of Data & Advertising Operations at TelevisaUnivision, emphasized consistency and transparency as streaming expands. "The expansion of the OM SDK for CTV strengthens the foundation for consistent and reliable viewability insights across screens and operating platforms," Hillman stated. "DoubleVerify's established CTV capabilities, deep platform integrations, and transparent methodology are trusted across the industry, allowing us to provide advertisers greater confidence and clarity in their investment."

Anthony Katsur, CEO of IAB Tech Lab, characterized continued adoption of Open Measurement SDK for CTV as an important step toward consistent, standards-based measurement and improved device authenticity. "Brands expect transparency, comparability, and proof of performance across every channel," Katsur stated. "Advancing these standards gives advertisers the clarity they need to invest with confidence."

Low Adoption Undermines Channel Growth

The transparency and measurement gaps DoubleVerify highlighted reflect broader challenges documented across the streaming advertising ecosystem. Research from Gracenote published in October 2025 found that 32 percent of media professionals characterize their CTV advertising as "not very effective," despite 27 percent of respondents allocating 40 percent or more of total budgets to the channel.

Survey data from IAB released in November 2025 revealed that 72 percent of publishers cite technical integration challenges as major obstacles for Conversion API adoption, while 61 percent identify compliance with legal and regulatory requirements as significant concerns. These technical barriers prevent standardized measurement implementation across streaming platforms.

European research released in November 2025 found that while nearly nine in ten respondents reported moderate familiarity with addressability in digital advertising, true expertise remains concentrated within advertising technology companies and agencies. Advertisers displayed notable knowledge gaps beyond basic familiarity, with organizations managing smaller budgets demonstrating less expertise than larger counterparts.

The measurement challenges extend beyond viewability to encompass content-level transparency and outcome measurement. Industry expert warnings documented in November 2025 emphasized that Connected TV represents fundamentally different advertising environments than display or video web campaigns, requiring television-specific creative investment, appropriate key performance indicator selection, and measurement frameworks using TV-specific metrics rather than web-based approaches.

Regulatory Constraints Complicate Adoption

The Video Privacy Protection Act, enacted in 1988, restricts video service providers from disclosing personally identifiable information about subscribers' video viewing habits without consent. This legislation creates compliance challenges for streaming platforms attempting to provide advertisers with content-level performance data, as sharing viewing information could potentially violate statutory restrictions even when aggregated or anonymized.

Platform-specific rules compound these regulatory constraints. Each streaming service maintains different technical capabilities, data-sharing policies, and measurement integrations, creating what DoubleVerify characterizes as a patchwork of restrictions limiting what publishers can share. Advertisers planning campaigns across multiple streaming platforms must navigate varying levels of transparency, measurement methodologies, and reporting granularity.

Streaming platforms have formed coalitions addressing regulatory developments. Fifteen specialty streaming services announced the formation of Beyond Mainstream: A Global Streaming Alliance in November 2025, advocating for regulatory frameworks recognizing operational differences between mainstream platforms and genre-specific services serving niche audiences.

Privacy regulations beyond VPPA influence streaming television measurement. The General Data Protection Regulation in Europe establishes comprehensive rules for personal data processing, while state privacy laws in the United States create varying compliance requirements. Fourteen U.S. state privacy laws were enforceable at the start of 2025, with six more expected throughout the year, according to IAB Tech Lab technical roadmap documentation.

Agencies Demand Comparable Standards

Agencies and brands increasingly demand aligned, comparable standards allowing them to plan media, optimize performance, and measure outcomes across channels with confidence. As investment in streaming grows, buyers seek clearer signals and more granular insights helping them validate context and make informed decisions about campaign allocation.

According to the announcement, agencies and advertisers require consistent signals to plan and measure effectively across fragmented streaming environments. The industry needs interoperable standards reducing fragmentation and rebuilding trust across the streaming ecosystem.

DoubleVerify characterized transparency not as a competitive advantage but as a shared principle that should strengthen the entire streaming marketplace. "Publishers need frameworks that enable them to remain compliant while meeting the expectations of advertisers," Randak stated. "Advertisers need consistent signals to plan and measure effectively. And the industry needs interoperable standards that reduce fragmentation and rebuild trust across the streaming ecosystem."

The announcement invited platforms, publishers, agencies, and measurement partners to join efforts building a streaming ecosystem that is regulatory-compliant, measurable, open, and accountable. "DV's Certified Transparent Streaming program and DV's support for OM SDK for CTV represent important steps forward—but they are only the beginning," according to the statement.

"We invite platforms, publishers, agencies, and measurement partners to join us in building a streaming ecosystem that is regulatory-compliant, measurable, open, and accountable," Randak concluded. "Transparency is not only beneficial for measurement but also essential for the long-term health of the streaming industry."

Technical Standards Development Continues

IAB Tech Lab maintains active working groups developing technical standards for streaming television advertising despite slow industry adoption. The organization's 2025 technical roadmap includes Ad Creative ID Framework for cross-television measurement, device attestation integration into Open Measurement SDK for fraud prevention, and commerce media extensions in OpenRTB protocols.

Content Taxonomy 3.0 upgrades aim to improve contextual targeting capabilities, particularly for CTV revenue growth, by reducing friction associated with free text fields and mismatched taxonomies. The taxonomy update, released in December 2024, introduced standardized OpenRTB attributes designed to transform free-text genre descriptions into enumerated values.

IAB Tech Lab identified six technical challenges at an August 2025 workshop including creative ID frameworks, inventory ownership complexities, advanced ad format standardization, live event delivery protocols, conversion feedback mechanisms, and measurement consistency. Operations professionals from major streaming platforms including Paramount, NBC, DirectTV, Samsung, Fox, Disney, and Yahoo examined limitations in CTV advertising infrastructure.

The Media Rating Council issued draft standards in September 2025 outlining comprehensive transparency requirements for digital advertising auctions across multiple channels, including streaming Connected TV and addressable television. The standards address auction types, bid conversion processes, reserve pricing, winner determination, reporting requirements, change disclosure protocols, and independent auditing guidelines.

Performance Measurement Adoption Accelerates Elsewhere

While transparency and viewability standards face adoption challenges, performance measurement capabilities have accelerated through technology partnerships. Innovid expanded its Harmony platform with conversion signals in November 2025, enabling publishers and platforms to optimize campaigns in real time based on actual business outcomes rather than traditional delivery metrics. Display & Video 360 became an early adopter of the expanded conversion signal capabilities.

Teads launched deterministic CTV measurement in October 2025, tracking site visits, leads, and sales directly tied to Connected TV exposure through household-level targeting and proprietary algorithms. The platform entered beta availability across key global markets including the United States, EU5 countries, and Asia-Pacific regions.

LG Ad Solutions and Taboola announced a partnership on December 3, 2025, introducing Performance Enhancer, connecting premium television exposure with measurable digital outcomes across Connected TV and digital channels globally. The solution combines LG Ad Solutions' first-party Automatic Content Recognition data with Realize, Taboola's performance advertising platform.

Performance marketing's expansion into television represents a fundamental shift in how businesses approach video advertising. PubMatic and MNTN partnership data shows performance marketers entering premium CTV inventory generate 10 percent revenue uplift for publishers through 14 percent more unique demand. These advertisers compete for premium placements because their performance requirements demand quality environments where audiences remain engaged.

Attention Measurement Gains Traction

Attention measurement has emerged as another metric gaining adoption faster than standardized viewability frameworks. Research from Kargo and TVision demonstrated that Enhanced Branded Canvas campaigns achieved 78 percent higher attention than industry standards across diverse advertising objectives and campaign structures.

Teads' CTV HomeScreen advertisements achieved 48 percent attention rates, surpassing YouTube skippable pre-roll advertisements by 16 percentage points. The study utilized in-lab eye-tracking technology and brand recall surveys with 100 Smart TV viewers to measure attention duration and brand impact across different advertising formats.

Industry discussion at IAB Europe's Virtual Programmatic Day in July 2025 highlighted ongoing standardization challenges, with panelists noting that different platforms and vendors use varying attention definitions. Anna Libova, Senior Director Publisher Sales at DoubleVerify, stated that improved attention brings outcomes across the full funnel while describing attention as a privacy-friendly solution for understanding campaign effectiveness.

Contextual targeting capabilities have also expanded. IPG Mediabrands launched Acxiom Contextual CTV in August 2025, built on IRIS.TV's widely adopted content ID. The platform enables advertisers to reach consumers with relevant messages based on context, genre, and tone of content being viewed, generating 2x lift in Awareness, 3x in Ad Recall, and 5x in Favorability compared to Upwave's Tactic Norms for CTV.

Streaming Viewership Reaches Historic Levels

Streaming viewership patterns underscore the urgency of standardized measurement adoption. Nielsen's July 2025 report indicated streaming officially eclipsed the combined share of broadcast and cable TV for the first time. Streaming represented 44.8 percent of TV viewership in May 2025, while broadcast at 20.1 percent and cable at 24.1 percent combined represented 44.2 percent of total television viewing.

Connected television advertising spending reached $33.35 billion in 2025, with budget allocation doubling from 14 percent in 2023 to 28 percent in 2025, according to industry projections tracked by PPC Land. This growth occurred alongside fundamental shifts in measurement methodologies as traditional attribution models face limitations capturing streaming television's effectiveness.

Free ad-supported television services have become increasingly popular. PlutoTV, Roku Channel and Tubi combined for 5.7 percent of total TV viewing in May 2025, representing more viewership than any individual broadcast network during that period, according to Nielsen data.

The gap between viewership growth and measurement adoption creates significant challenges for advertisers attempting to validate campaign effectiveness. Research indicates that over one-third of advertising impressions in Connected TV environments deliver when advertisements play while television sets are powered off, contributing to an estimated $1 billion in annual wasted advertising spending.

Timeline

• 1988 - Video Privacy Protection Act enacted, creating content-level data sharing restrictions
• 2021 - DoubleVerify launches Fully On-Screen capabilities for CTV viewability
• 2023 - DoubleVerify introduces CTV Viewability measurement aligned with IAB guidelines
• April 2024 - DoubleVerify earns MRC Accreditation for CTV Viewability
• December 2024 - IAB Tech Lab unveils Content Taxonomy 3.0 upgrade for programmatic CTV
• January 2025 - IAB Tech Lab unveils technical standards roadmap for digital advertising
• June 2025 - IAB Tech Lab integrates UniversalAdId into OM SDK
• August 2025 - IAB Tech Lab identifies six technical barriers to CTV programmatic growth
• September 2025 - Media Rating Council issues draft auction transparency standards
• October 2025 - Gracenote reveals 32% of media professionals find CTV ineffective
• November 2025 - IAB pushes standardized Conversion APIs to close CTV outcome gap
• November 2025 - European research reveals addressability expertise gaps
• December 4, 2025 - DoubleVerify issues call to action for industry-wide transparency and measurement adoption

Summary

Who: DoubleVerify, a measurement verification company, issued the call to action through Todd Randak, General Manager of CTV. DPG Media, TelevisaUnivision, and IAB Tech Lab CEO Anthony Katsur provided supporting statements. The appeal targets platforms, publishers, agencies, and measurement partners across the streaming ecosystem.

What: A call to action urging industry-wide adoption of existing transparency and measurement standards rather than announcing new product launches. DoubleVerify highlighted its Certified Transparent Streaming program for content-level reporting and Open Measurement SDK support for standardized viewability as templates for broader industry implementation.

When: The statement was released on December 4, 2025, as Connected TV advertising spending reached $33.35 billion with budget allocation doubling from 14 percent in 2023 to 28 percent in 2025, yet measurement adoption remains inconsistently implemented across streaming platforms.

Where: The appeal addresses the global streaming television ecosystem where regulatory constraints like the Video Privacy Protection Act and platform-specific rules create fragmented measurement capabilities. Industry research shows 32 percent of media professionals characterize CTV advertising as ineffective despite significant budget allocation.

Why: Low adoption of transparency and measurement standards undermines trust in streaming advertising as viewership patterns shift dramatically toward streaming platforms. Over one-third of CTV advertising impressions deliver in TV-off environments, contributing an estimated $1 billion in annual wasted spending. Advertisers lack consistent signals to verify media quality, ensure contextual relevance, and optimize spending across fragmented streaming platforms, while publishers face technical and regulatory barriers preventing standardized data sharing common in other digital channels.