What you need to know:

• Ipsos developing hybrid tagged/panel measurement system, with CTV data to be worked in later.
• IAB CEO Gai Le Roy dismissed rumours Ipsos and publishes behind schedule, though said launch may now be July, versus "second quarter" mooted last year.
• It may be new system initially launches without laggard publishers.

IAB Australia CEO Gai Le Roy has poured cold water on rumours that the build out of the new hybrid system that will become Australia’s primary source of online measurement is set for significant delays.

Ipsos was awarded the contract last year, ending Nielsen’s 10-year relationship as the IAB-endorsed provider. Its Iris system combines both panels and tags in a bid to deliver cross-media measurement and unduplicated reach.

Le Roy last year told Mi3 that Iris would be live in market "in the second quarter". This week she said the launch is “still on track to have April data [live] by June-July”. While that suggests slippage into the third quarter, Le Roy said that there are currently “no red flags”.

“We need to get it right,” said Le Roy, adding the timetable was “always tight … because we need to get the currency back in the market as soon as possible”.

While IAB awarded the tender, Ipsos must work through contractual arrangements with individual publishers before they can start tagging sites, enabling them to feed data into the new system. Some publishers are at a more advanced stage than others, and market participants suggest the new system may need to go live regardless of laggards.

Should that occur, “we have the option of panel data” from launch, said Le Roy.

Among other things, significant delays would leave publishers and buyers without an IAB endorsed unique audience (UA) figure for longer. At the moment, publishers can show advertisers IAB-approved volume metrics such as clicks and session times, but not UA figures approved by the IAB. 

Le Roy admitted that is "not great ... but we don't want to endorse something that is not accurate, so we are working as quickly as possible to get brand new ones that meet high standards".

Meanwhile, “work remains to be done” on integrating de-duplicated CTV data from Oztam into the new currency, but Le Roy is confident it will come “slightly later in the year [with] all parties working towards that.”