The Media Rating Council (MRC) has completed its accreditation process covering Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel national TV measurement, after recently accrediting Nielsen’s integration of first-party live streaming data and re-accrediting Nielsen’s traditional panel measurement.
Nielsen is said to be the first accredited national TV audience measurement provider for Big Data + Panel.
In the TV measurement space, big data refers to return-path data (RPD) from cable and satellite set-top boxes, as well as automatic content recognition (ACR) data from internet-connected smart TVs. Nielsen partners with companies like Comcast, DirecTV, Dish Network, Roku and Vizio, providing access to granular data from 45 million households (and 75 million devices) in the U.S. alone. Nielsen is also incorporating first-party data from participating streaming services to help measure audiences for live streaming events. These are massive datasets that capture TV viewing at the device level.
“The accreditation of Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel is a landmark moment for TV ratings, as it will forever change audience measurement,” said Karthik Rao, Nielsen CEO.
“No one else pairs a representative panel with a data set this large, pulling from smart TVs and set top boxes in more than 45 million homes. I believe Big Data + Panel gives the industry the most accurate measurement in the history of TV,” he said.
Big Data + Panel fuels planning and measurement in the Nielsen ecosystem and partners’ systems, enabling cross-platform advanced audiences at scale.
This measurement can be utilised to support the media industry beyond advertising planning and buying, by helping to inform content programming and licensing decisions, along with carriage fees for TV distribution deals.
Big Data + Panel was widely adopted by many broadcasters and agencies for the 2024 Upfront season and Nielsen is endorsing its use as currency heading into the 2025 Upfront.
In addition to bringing Big Data + Panel measurement to the market, Nielsen has expanded National TV out-of-home measurement, which is also being submitted to MRC for evaluation and is in process. Nielsen also does streaming measurement with widely adopted products like Streaming Content Ratings (which feeds in Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10) and Streaming Platform Ratings (which provides the streaming data behind The Gauge and Media Distributor Gauge).
George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director, Media Rating Council, said that this effort marks the first time MRC has accredited a hybrid panel/big-data product inclusive of persons level estimates.
“MRC has completed and evaluated rigorous audits of Nielsen’s National Service and its new components, including first party streaming (thus far consisting of select NFL games) and the integration of big data. We have now approved the integration of big data so this combined methodology can be considered MRC accredited,” he added.
Paul Ballew, Chief Data & Analytic Officer of the NFL said, “The accreditation of their Big Data solution is a significant step in the journey and we commend Nielsen for their efforts.”
For advertisers and agencies, Nielsen has recently expanded Nielsen ONE to include outcomes capabilities in addition to advanced audiences, planning and measurement.