As the industry embraces Nielsen’s big data + panel, the NFL is on board with the new measurement tool. Still, chief data and analytics officer Paul Ballew says there’s “more work” to be done in terms of accurate viewership data.
“The measurement movement that Nielsen has taken to go to big data + panel is something we strongly support,” Ballew said in a Tuesday media briefing. “We’ve been pushing that very hard for the last couple of years, all the way through the accreditation process, because we view it as a step forward.”
He added that the inclusion of big data from Roku, Comcast, Dish, Vizio and DirecTV with Nielsen’s panel data is “absolutely essential,” calling the combination of information from big data partners and the existing panel a “positive step in the direction to improve measurement.”
“I think we should all feel better that as we go into this season, that we will have a more robust currency that is widely used in the marketplace, which will once again allow us to continue to go down that path against a fragmented media landscape of more accurate measurement,” Ballew continued.
That said, the exec also noted that there’s still “more work” to be done to achieve the most accurate viewership information, especially as it pertains to co-viewing for big games like the Super Bowl or holiday games. “We have some work to do still on some other measurements within the chain from the methodological standpoint,” he said, adding that there’s opportunities to bring in first-party data on the streaming side.
“It remains ‘a journey with Nielsen,’ is probably the right way to describe it,” Ballew shared. “We’re going to continue to work with Nielsen, and we’re going to continue to work with other partners to accelerate the measurement innovation even further.”
One of those other companies might be VideoAmp, which Ballew called “intriguing,” saying, “They’ve made progress in the last year to 18 months.” “They’ve proven to be able to ingest transactional data scale from the network, they’re making progress on some of the key elements, such as multipliers and other related factors that are essential on the linear side as well,” he said.
“The bottom line for the NFL is we’re going to continue to focus … on getting the most accurate measurement possible, both for operational and PR purposes,” Ballew concluded.
