Marking the latest iteration of TV ratings during the increasingly complicated and fragmented streaming era, this fall the industry will adopt Nielsen‘s Big Data + Panel, the first accredited national TV audience measurement provider of its kind, which the company says will offer the most accurate viewership information to date.
The new measurement tool combines Nielsen’s existing panel with data from cable, satellite set-top boxes and smart TVs across 45 million households and 75 million devices through the company’s partnership with big data partners like Roku, Comcast, Dish, Vizio, and DirecTV. It also incorporates first-party data from participating streaming services for live events.
The system is Nielsen’s next step in “future-proofing” ratings as streaming becomes more and more prevalent in the TV landscape.
“You see the various ways in which viewership is shifting, and we needed to really dramatically evolve the system to be future proof,” Nielsen CEO Karthik Rao told TheWrap, pointing to Nielsen’s The Gauge report, which saw streaming surpass the combined share of broadcast and cable for the first time ever in May. “If you want to move to a world where you can truly understand what’s happening to consumers between streaming and linear, you need a system that can evolve to that.”
The Big Data + Panel is the next step in Nielsen’s evolution to capture audiences, building on its innovations over the years, including the integration of VCR and cable viewing in 1980 and the addition of a demographic-driven people meter in 1987, which paved the way for tailored ads.
With viewing dispersed across broadcast, cable and streaming, the Big Data + Panel creates a “cohesive structure” that accounts for the biases within measurements, enabling an accurate comparison between an NFL game on a broadcast network and a streaming service like Prime Video, for example.
“It allows us to expand far beyond one system using the best of all of the largest data sets available, whether it’s first party or third party, and then combines that with the best … panel on the planet, which is persons level,” Rao said, adding that the industry is “all about delivering ads and content to humans.”
The enormous amount of data delivered via the Big Data + Panel also provides more information for Nielsen’s partners to create advanced advertising, with Rao pointing to Nielsen’s recent partnership with WPP Media (formerly GroupM), which aims to provide advertisers with more actionable insights to inform their campaign planning.
Rao believes that Big Data + Panel also takes a stride forward in streaming data transparency, noting it lies in whether data from a streamer follows the same patterns of other viewership data.
“We’re the only player who has an audited, accredited streaming capability, so as we continue to expand, bringing in more streaming data … the system is built, it’s in place, it’s trusted, it’s validated by the industry,” Rao said. “It’s just a matter of execution for us.”
Rao added that Nielsen is working on improving the speed of its weekly streaming top 10 lists, which are currently available a month later, to make their measurements “more relevant on a more real-time basis.”
The company is also seeking to strengthen out-of-home measurement, with Rao noting Nielsen is more than tripling its expansion into its overall product after an early rollout of that component wasn’t vast enough to capture national viewing.
Nielsen introduced the new system at this year’s upfronts, with Rao noting the team spent time getting their partners comfortable with it, admitting that there’s always an adjustment period adapting to a new system. “Everyone’s on board and the agencies are all on board, which is a very important constituency, and pretty much all of the publishers as well,” he said.
Beginning Sept. 1, Nielsen’s press policy states all press claims by broadcasters, networks and streamers should be based on the Big Data + Panel. Given the data is delivered to clients two to three days after a premiere, there is an exception for single-day events, a flexibility that Rao explained was necessary as clients are eager to report live-event ratings in a timely fashion, framing this first launch as an adjustment period in which Nielsen is adapting to “existing workflows” from clients.
Nonetheless, as Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel is adopted as the “system of record,” Rao said the company is far past other measurement competitors like VideoAmp and iSpot, which have recently struck deals with media companies.
Having once been the only game in town for such measurement, Nielsen is mindful of the competition. But Rao said with the new system, the company has reached a level of transparency that would be “virtually impossible” for competitors to match.
