Nielsen to Merge TV Ratings: Traditional & Digital

Nielsen is revising its television audience measurement system to accurately represent how people consume content in today’s environment, where viewing occurs both through traditional live broadcasts and via on-demand services across numerous streaming platforms and devices.

Although the company has historically been the standard for television viewership metrics, measuring audiences in the digital space has become more complex due to fragmentation. Therefore, the forthcoming Nielsen One platform represents an evolution of Nielsen’s fundamental measurement principles, rather than simply another digital measurement product.

“Our primary goal is to eliminate measurement as an obstacle to cross-media advertising purchases,” explained Scott Brown, Nielsen’s general manager of audience measurement.

Consequently, when Nielsen One is introduced in the autumn of 2022, the reported viewership figures for a television program will accurately reflect the total audience size, encompassing viewers beyond those watching through conventional methods.

Brown also noted that, with the prevalence of programmatic advertising online and its increasing application to traditional television, it is time to move beyond the assumption that “everyone is exposed to the same advertisements.”

This shift signifies a departure from Nielsen’s C3 and C7 ratings, which currently estimate the number of viewers who saw a program’s advertisements within three and seven days of the original broadcast, respectively. Nielsen One will provide a much more detailed analysis, quantifying the audience for each individual advertisement across various platforms: “Each advertisement will receive its own audience estimation,” with the intention of completely phasing out the older metrics by fall 2024.

The launch of Nielsen One will also incorporate a “new data infrastructure,” granting Nielsen’s clients more direct access to the underlying data used to generate these reports.

Nielsen will continue to utilize its existing panels for creating television ratings, but Brown stated that the data will now be “truly cross-platform.” The company will also integrate data from its partners, including Amazon, Hulu, Roku, Vizio, and Google/YouTube.

Brown indicated that, as many networks and media companies launch or acquire their own streaming services, they should all benefit from collaborating with Nielsen to validate their viewership and advertising effectiveness—although some, such as Netflix and Disney+, may have less incentive given their subscription-based business models.

“All viewership will be measured,” he affirmed. “Those who actively integrate with us will receive more precise measurement and more extensive coverage.”

I also raised the issue of differing standards for defining a video view—for example, Facebook counts three seconds of viewing time, while Netflix requires viewers to “choose to watch” for at least two minutes—and asked what Nielsen would consider an impression.

“We haven’t yet finalized a definitive answer,” Brown responded. Instead, Nielsen intends to establish a working group to resolve this matter next year. In the interim, it is developing technology capable of “measuring at a second-by-second level of detail,” allowing the platform to accommodate whatever standard is ultimately adopted.

“The current fragmented measurement environment complicates the planning, execution, and validation of cross-platform campaigns, making them increasingly unpredictable,” stated Adam Gerber, chief media officer at the agency Essence, in a press release. “As we transition to addressable models, prioritize reach, and optimize for results, it’s essential to develop and implement consistent, single-source measurement solutions. Nielsen’s new cross-media approach is a significant step toward providing the confidence and transparency that advertisers need to support comprehensive campaigns.”