What you need to know:

• Ipsos is set to replace Nielsen for the IAB's online measurement contract.
• The UK's digital industry appointed Ipsos last year to handle its online measurement service with a panel of 10,000 consumers willing to have all their devices passively tracked.
• The IAB said a decision on the Australian tender winner will be announced within two weeks  

Number's up

Big changes are looming in online measurement as Mi3 understands a decision by the IAB to appoint Ipsos has been made and legal and technical details are being finalised. Ipsos in April lost the newsmedia readership measurement contract to Roy Morgan after eight years.  

Specific details on the digital audience contract are scant but IAB Australia’s move follows the UK’s online measurement body UKOM, which last year dropped Commscore for Ipsos and its Iris project for five years from 2021. 

In the UK, Ipsos proposed a single source research panel of 10,000 consumers willing to install passive meters across their devices. Australia is likely to replicate the approach although Mi3 could not confirm this at the time of publishing.

IAB CEO Gai Le Roy would not be drawn on the Ipsos decision, telling Mi3 in a statement that “we expect to make an announcement on the successful organisation within the next fortnight.”

Ipsos Australia referred Mi3 queries to the IAB and a statement from Nielsen said: “We await IAB Australia’s formal announcement to discuss the outcome of the digital content audience measurement tender.”         

Le Roy said 16 submissions were received for the digital audience measurement contract review, started in May. The IAB said at the time the tender would be strategic, robust and fast and it appears to have made good on that pledge.