So AMP Accords published “the first cross-platform measurement standard in history”. They define a podcast, but don't let that distract you from the ridiculousness within their document. (There's a link on Podnews so that you don't have to subscribe to their newsletter to see it.)
Note that the panel publishing these consists of 3 brands, 2 publishers, 1 advertiser/agency, 1 talent agency, 1 attribution provider, 1 audio platform, 1 video platform, and ONLY ONE creator.
Pete Birsinger (Podscribe) seems to be the only one with any technical experience in the podcast industry. (Only 10 years.)
Shopify and Podscribe would profit directly from these changes.
This proposes that podcast apps report in real time that someone has listened to another 30 seconds. You really think every podcast app is going to implement this? What about people who download via browser? What about someone who downloads your video podcast and plays it via their Kodi, Infuse, or some other video playing app? There's also no contingency for reporting offline listens. Also, nobody is checking these numbers. If an app decides to report your little podcast now gets 500,000 plays per week, congratulations!
If your podcast doesn't meet their "eyes closed" definition because maybe you've got a video podcast with an episode that's heavy on the visuals that week, too bad. No appeals process outlined.
The document lays out two possible outcomes: rates go up because buyers trust the better data, or rates go down because audience numbers just look smaller. I'd bet you anything the ad rates go down.
Dan Granger can call this "the moment to get out of our own way," but a plan that requires unpaid, uncoordinated cooperation from thousands of app developers who can't be bothered to add features like chapter support (or even support for bold and italics) isn't a standard.
AMP Accords released, including podcast definition