The consortium is made up of Viacom, 21st Century Fox’s Fox Networks Group and Time Warner’s Turner, and aims to make it easier for advertisers to send ads to specific viewer segments. Open AP is a new platform that will be operated and monitored by Accenture that allows advertisers to use a standard set of data sets when working out where to reach narrower consumer targets.

Turner and Viacom held a launch event last week to share more details on the previously announced OpenAP. At the event, it was announced that Nielsen plans to participate with the consortium on the initiative. 

“We support the consortium’s ambitions to create a clearinghouse for audience-based buying on linear television," said Lynda Clarizio, president of US Media at Nielsen.

"Nielsen’s audience segments built on our household, person level and buyergraphic ratings data are the most widely used for national audience based buying across linear television today.  We are confident that they will play the same role in OpenAP.  We look forward to working with the participating networks and advertisers on the broader success of this initiative.”