Three upstart companies could be on their way to challenging Nielsen’s dominance in the TV ratings game, after a meticulous evaluation by the industry-backed US Joint Industry Committee (JIC).

Measurement providers Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp all passed the org’s mid-term audit, which inspected their enhancements in order to reaffirm their “certification and currency-grade readiness”. It’s a step that should help pave the way for more competition in the audience tracking and measurement business.

That was one of the primary goals for launching the JIC in 2023, with backing from media giants such as Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery. That same year, the org gave a conditional certification to audience-measurement technologies from Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp.

Nielsen has traditionally been the go-to company for measuring audience metrics, but a lot has changed since the days when viewers were limited to linear TV. The JIC was created to advocate for measurement data from a wider variety of sources in order to paint a more complete picture of audience habits in a changing media landscape. There was also a push in 2023 to verify more measurement players, given that Nielsen was navigating a temporary suspension of its Media Rights Council (MRC) accreditation at the time that was later reinstated.

In today’s announcement, the JIC confirmed that Comscore, iSpot and VideoAmp all meet the baseline requirements for operational functionality, transparency and usability. Comscore was the last of the three to earn the org’s full certification for including “personified demographics” in its national TV measurement solution. Now all three providers can offer market solutions that have been verified as transactable across personified demographics, total household metrics and advanced audiences.

“Receiving full JIC certification, particularly for our persons-based data, underscores Comscore’s commitment to setting a higher standard for media measurement,” said the company’s CEO Jon Carpenter in a release. ‘We are the only provider that marries big data with methodological rigor in a way that is recognized by both the Media Rating Council and the JIC. This signals to the industry that Comscore continues to lead the way in delivering scalable, accurate and certified measurement solutions that our clients can trust.”