Streaming fragmentation has made accurate audience reach harder than ever, undermining confidence, control and accountability across TV buying. What’s more, a recent study published by Truthset, GoAddressable and CIMM found that many of the data signals advertisers and publishers rely on to reach audiences–IP addresses notably–are inaccurate a whopping 90% of the time. At our CES Audience Summit, CIMM’s Jon Watts sat down with OpenAP CEO David Levy to unpack the findings of the study, why identity has become such a challenge, and what it will take to fix it.
A simple, uncomfortable truth emerged from the joint study: much of today’s identity infrastructure is simply not as accurate as the industry assumes. Inconsistent mappings between IP addresses, households and devices mean that audiences often change as they move through the activation process, resulting in wasted spend and misleading measurement.
“If you want accurate outcomes, you need consistent identity—full stop.” - David Levy
The why isn’t as simple as one might think, and no one is truly to blame. Legacy pipes weren’t built for today’s privacy expectations or data complexity, leaving little transparency into how identity decisions are made. Emerging privacy-safe technologies, however, are opening the door to more collaborative and accountable approaches.
While a single identity solution for the entire industry is not feasible, a federated model that respects investment in first-party data while ensuring consistency on each buy is within reach. Shared standards, applied at the campaign level, can preserve differentiation while delivering the accuracy and consistency buyers need. “Federation lets the ecosystem stay competitive without sacrificing accuracy,” Levy explained.
Looking ahead, the stakes extend beyond measurement alone. Without reliable, standardized identity, the industry risks defaulting to closed platforms and easy-button buying. With it, agencies and publishers can retain control, enable transparency, and build the clean data foundations required for AI-driven optimization and outcomes-based planning.
“Better data foundations lead to better automation, and better outcomes.” - David Levy