• by Ben Frederick  @mp_benfred, July 9, 2015

The Media Rating Council (MRC) has accredited Needham, MA-based advertising firm Extreme Reach for video ad viewability measurement. The accreditation adds another vendor marketers can turn to for digital ad viewability measurement, though getting all of those disparate vendors lined up remains an issue. 

According to the MRC’s industry standard, in order for a video ad to be viewable, the ad must be at least 50% in-view for at least two continuous seconds. Extreme Reach tacks on two additional requirements of its own: calling for sound to not be auto-muted by the video player, and for the ads to be played on a video player at least 200x150 pixels.

"The digital video ad ecosystem is quickly standardizing around viewability and the inevitable outcome is the viewable impression evolving from a qualitative metric to transactional currency,” Avi Brown, chief digital officer of Extreme Reach, told Real-Time Daily. “Extreme Reach's software provides insight into many metrics -- audience, brand lift and more -- but viewability is an important one for all of our clients."

Extreme Reach is already accredited by the MRC in nine other categories, including video impressions, video clicks, reach and frequency.

Recent Google data found that only about half (54%) of digital video ads -- excluding YouTube ads -- are viewable.