BREAKING: Blubrry and NPR are first with IAB Certification

• This is a special breaking news issue of Podnews.

Blubrry has become the first independent podcast host to be given IAB Certification. They join NPR as the first two companies to be given IAB Certification, in an announcement made in the last few minutes.

Until now, many podcast hosts have been claiming that they’re “IAB compliant” - which is intended to mean that they are following the IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines.

However, companies that claim they’re “IAB compliant” may, inadvertently, not be. “Unless certified, we have not examined their practices,” Jennifer Lane, Industry Lead at the IAB, told us last month.

Amit Shetty, Sr. Director, Video & Audio Products, IAB Tech Lab, added: “Our certification program is how companies can prove that they are compliant with the podcast measurement guidelines. That is where we have auditors look at the implementations in detail and run tests to determine whether they are satisfying the requirements of the guidelines. Companies that are certified will get a seal and will be listed on the website.”

Blubrry started working on IAB Certification around six months ago. Todd Cochrane, CEO of Blubrry, said in a blog post recently: “The process … has included code review, test measurement comparison, control policies, log audits, and extensive discussions of the entire chain of data processing, safelist creation, blocklist sources, fraud prevention, and cross verification. My team has spent several hundred hours on this audit.” (We’ve pictured the Blubrry team above.)

Last week, NPR also launched RAD, an analytics standard intended to measure podcast consumption from enabled players.

• The IAB Podcast Measurement Guidelines - formulated by the US IAB - have been accepted by IAB Australia. IAB UK, however, have not made a public comment on the guidelines, and they have not responded to our enquiries. The BBC called for a UK industry chart in July.

• In Sweden, the industry’s poddindex, launched in Autumn 2017, is mostly harmonised with the IAB’s guidelines, and has offered its own certification programme since launch.

• Here’s a press release from Blubrry about their measurement certification.

Press Release

Blubrry Podcasting Becomes First Podcast Hosting Company to Receive IAB Podcast Measurement Certification

Blubrry podcast statistics are certified to the highest set of industry standards

Columbus OH, USA—Blubrry Podcasting recently made history as the first podcast-hosting service provider to have its podcast stats certified by the Interactive Advertising Bureau Tech Lab for Podcast Measurement Compliance​.

“This is the gold standard. There is no substitution to certification of compliance,” said Todd Cochrane, Blubrry CEO. “Ad buyers, networks, podcast hosting platforms, and podcasters now have an audited, validated, certified platform ready to serve them.”

Blubrry, which has been providing podcasting statistics since 2005, was one of several organizations taking part in the extensive independent auditing and certification process based on the standards within the IAB’s Podcast Measurement Guidelines. National Public Radio, a non profit membership media organization, was also certified.

As part of IAB’s Podcast Technical Working Group, Blubrry and 31 other podcast and traditional media companies contributed to the Podcast Measurement Guidelines, released in December 2017, that provide strict rules and guidelines as the basis of certification, including downloads, listens, advertising delivery and advertisement play.

As of today, Blubrry Enterprise customers are able to label their podcast statistics as IAB Certified to be in compliance with the Podcast Measurement Guidelines. Blubrry Hosting customers and those shows using the Blubrry redirect with other platforms will quickly follow as outlined in this ​blog post​. Blubrry customers should expect no changes to their metrics as the certified platform system has been in place since 2013.

Unlike other providers, Blubrry podcast statistics are platform agnostic, meaning statistics services are not limited to Blubrry hosting customers. This has given Blubrry valuable insights on numerous areas in podcasting, with tens of thousands of shows being measured since 2005.

“The audit included reviews of our platform architecture, filtering, file threshold levels, identity, aggregate uniques, metrics generation, website player reviews and recommendations, disclosures and external audit of the code line by line,” explained Blubrry CIO Angelo Mandato.

More than 50,000 podcasters have trusted Blubrry stats for 13 years, whether they host with Blubrry or not. The Blubrry Podcast Statistics platform is available as a white label solution for podcast hosting companies and media buyers.