Nielsen relaunches streaming measurement suite across content, ads and platforms to tackle growing consumer segment

Nielsen now captures 100% of streaming minutes viewed on the TV glass, 75% of CTV media spend and 87% of total video digital spend across computer, mobile and connected TV

New York, NY – Oct. 7, 2021  – Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN), a long time leader in streaming content and ad measurement, announced that it is bringing its streaming solutions together in a single measurement suite encompassing  ad-supported and subscription-based service models across content, ads and platforms. Nielsen’s renewed focus on comprehensive streaming measurement comes at a moment when U.S. consumers now spend over a quarter of their total TV time engaging with this type of content.

“By combining our streaming solutions under one banner, Nielsen is providing the industry with a single destination to understand streaming audiences and how they are engaging with content, allowing media buyers and sellers to make the best decisions around ad strategies,” said Deirdre Thomas, Managing Director, U.S. Audience Measurement Product Strategy. “With this comprehensive suite of streaming measurement solutions, content creators, platforms, studios and advertisers will have an unprecedented view of who is streaming, what they’re watching, which platforms consumers are gravitating to and how much time they are spending with streaming content.”

Armed with these insights, media buyers and sellers can make critical decisions around ad strategies and how best to target their desired audiences. Content creators and studios can make informed programming and content distribution decisions to reach key demographics. Streaming services can prove their audience profile against competitors and guide content and subscriber acquisition strategies. 

Nielsen Expands Streaming Coverage in 2021

Over the last year, Nielsen has significantly increased its ability to measure the streaming TV landscape, more than tripling the sample size of Streaming Meter Homes, in order  to provide the market with the most comprehensive view of streaming activity across connected TV (CTV), computer, mobile and tablet. Nielsen has added connected TV ad inventory from Samsung and Vizio to our existing roster of measurement clients including Roku, Amazon and Hulu, among others. Combined, Nielsen will measure 75% of CTV media spend and 87% of total video digital spend across computer, mobile and connected TV.

As part of this relaunch, the company will rebrand two of its industry-leading streaming measurement solutions to better align with its transition to Nielsen ONE, the company’s cross-media solution. In addition, Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings will provide the most comprehensive view of streaming activity across CTV, computer, mobile and tablet.

Nielsen Streaming Platform Ratings. Streaming Video Ratings will now be referred to as Nielsen Streaming Platform Ratings. Nielsen’s Streaming Platform ratings will still provide a macro view of streaming activity across major subscription and ad-supported streaming services. Since launching in January 2021, Nielsen has more than tripled the sample size of Streaming Meter Homes and has also increased the number of platforms that are broken out distinctly to the top 17 platforms/apps, representing about 85% of the entire streaming market. 

Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings. Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings will be known now as Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings. Delivering program and episode-level measurement in the same syndicated fashion that has made it the leading streaming solution in the market since launching in 2017, today Nielsen Streaming Content Ratings is used by seven of the top 10 TV network groups and 14 of the top agencies. The product will continue to deliver granular views of program and episode-level measurement on four out of the top five streaming platforms. 

Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings. As part of Nielsen’s Streaming Suite and in line with the rise of CTV, Nielsen’s Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) will continue to deliver audience measurement for streaming ads on CTV devices. This intelligence is critical to understanding and uncovering comparable, actionable cross-platform performance metrics of streaming across connected TVs, computers, smartphones and tablets. 

There has never been a more dynamic time in our industry and relaunching these critical and expanding streaming products with more descriptive names will help clarify their capabilities and help pave the way toward Nielsen One.

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