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Dive Brief: 

• Nine national TV publishers, including Paramount, NBCUniversal and Warner Bros. Discovery, have teamed with advertising company OpenAP to introduce a standardized way to connect first-party data outcomes to campaign exposure data, per a press release. 
• The industry initiative will start with a pilot phase in partnership with select advertisers, agencies and attribution providers that will focus on demonstrating the need for a unified approach to outcomes, with results to be shared over the next year. 
• OpenAP will also introduce two capabilities under the effort, including a unified conversion API and new campaign workflows meant to improve performance. Future phases of the initiative will introduce support for agentic workflow interaction.

Dive Insight: 

Last week’s upfront presentations saw several industry giants tout new ad tools and measurement capabilities for their linear and streaming portfolios. Despite the latest innovations, a critical gap remains in regard to the fragmentation that makes analyzing outcome data across publishers difficult. 

OpenAP is looking to address that gap with its new industry initiative, which brings together national TV publishers A+E Global Media, AMC Global Media, Fox, Hallmark Media, NBCU, Paramount, Scripps Networks, TelevisaUnivision and Warner Bros. Discovery.

“Premium video needs its own intelligent operating layer to better compete with walled gardens,” said OpenAP CEO David Levy in a release. “By simplifying how outcomes are measured and activated across publishers, we can help advertisers see performance more easily, enable agencies to scale their audience strategies, and give publishers a stronger framework to grow investment without adding operational friction.” 

The initiative is meant to simplify the process for advertisers to plan, activate and measure outcomes across linear and streaming TV campaigns, and introduce a standardized way to connect outcome data to campaign exposure data. A multiphased strategy will begin with a pilot phase focused on demonstrating the benefits of a unified approach to cross-publisher execution, with initial results to be shared at key industry moments over the next year.

As part of the effort, OpenAP will introduce a cross-publisher conversion API for TV advertising that will allow advertisers to connect first-party conversion and outcome data to exposure data from participating publishers through a single integration point. The advertising company will use its shared identity framework to support consistent data translation.

Additionally, OpenAP will introduce new campaign workflows for cross-publisher and cross-platform campaigns. Future phases of the initiative will see the company introduce support for agentic workflow interaction and allow buy-side tools and agents to use the unified attribution signals from its conversion API to further optimize investments. 

The effort to address fragmentation comes as nearly 70% of connected TV advertisers plan to increase their spending this year, with an average increase of 17%, according to data from Advertiser Perceptions and Premion.