Media Ratings Council

What is the Media Ratings Council ?

Media Rating Council (often referred to as the MRC) is a US-based nonprofit organization that gives media research and advertising accreditations to ad platforms. Established in the 1960s, the Media Rating Council’s main goal is securing audience measurement services that are reliable, valid and effective. Additionally, they have an audit system.

The Media Rating Council’s audit activity includes internet, print, radio, television and out-of-home platforms. Most platforms strive to be audited and approved by Media Rating Council as they guarantee that the audience measurement services are reliable. In the advertising space, the Media Rating Council provide “a seal of approval” that ensures a service is up to the industry standard.

In addition to advertising platforms going through the Media Rating Council’s audits to ensure that they’re up to code and can be relied on by advertisers, the Media Rating Council publishes sets of standards for common advertising metrics such as viewability. In 2014, the Media Rating Council set a viewability standard for ads, requiring at least 50% of a display ad to be visible for at least one second, and two seconds for a video ad.

Adhering to the Media Rating Council standards allows both advertisers and publishers to reduce their own standards and metrics to a common denominator, and ensure that both parties can accurately interpret their advertising results.