Quite a quick investigation and resolution from comScore… but let’s have a recap into the whole story:

- a relatively obscure video network, YuMe, found itself ranked #8 in June’s Ad Focus rankings, with a reported audience of 134 million unique visitors and 71% reach among U.S. Internet users – all this as a result of their recent deal with Microsoft to monetize their remnant video inventory;

- raised voices in the industry led to a brief investigation, when comScore decided to demote YuMe to the 35th place and discount the Microsoft traffic as it was ‘inappropriately assigned’;

- YuMe protests and demands more uniform measurement procedures across ad networks, or a split between traditional display ad networks and video ad networks;

- comScore responds in just a couple of days and reinstates YuMe, saying ‘ComScore has verified that a legitimate business relationship exists between YuMe and Microsoft through documentation provided.’

While YuMe can rejoice now for the second time, there are major question marks in regard to comScore’s transparency:

- how’s their justification standing, since the initial issue wasn’t the ‘legitimacy’ of the YuMe – Microsoft deal, but the way impressions were counted (the whole Microsoft traffic was counted into YuMe’s network, and not only the one actually monetized by YuMe);

- what are the implication of comScore’s recent statement that ‘YuMe meets all current rules for inclusion as a custom entity in the Ad Focus category’ – if this is a custom entry in the rankings, how is it measurable and comparable with the other entries?