THE MEDIA RATING COUNCIL ACCREDITS NIELSEN'S INNOVATIVE BIG DATA + PANEL NATIONAL TV MEASUREMENT

Nielsen is First Accredited National TV Audience Measurement Provider for Big Data + Panel

Nielsen Endorses Big Data + Panel as Currency Heading into 2025 Upfront

Industry-Supported Big Data + Panel Measurement Improves Every Part of the Media Buying and Selling Process

NEW YORK, Jan. 22, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Media Rating Council (MRC) has completed its accreditation process covering Nielsen's innovative 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 the first accredited national TV audience measurement provider for Big Data + Panel.

"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 high quality, 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. We're grateful to our clients for helping us innovate once again."

"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," said George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director of the MRC. "We have now approved the integration of big data so this combined methodology can be considered MRC accredited; we appreciate Nielsen's inclusion of this in the MRC accreditation process." George added, "this effort marks the first time MRC has accredited a hybrid panel/big-data product inclusive of persons level estimates."

"The NFL continues to support Nielsen's efforts to modernize measurement so we can all benefit from accurate insights in an increasingly fragmented media marketplace," said Paul Ballew, Chief Data & Analytic Officer of the NFL. "The accreditation of their Big Data solution is a significant step in the journey and we commend Nielsen for their efforts."

Big Data + Panel National TV Measurement combines Nielsen's unique, high-quality representative panel measurement with data from cable, satellite set-top boxes and smart TVs across 45 million households and 75 million devices. Big Data + Panel fuels planning and measurement in the Nielsen ecosystem and partners' systems, enabling cross-platform advanced audiences at scale. This measurement innovation can be utilized 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. 

This continues Nielsen's track record of innovation and modernization, reinforcing its leadership position in audience measurement. 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 is also the industry leader in 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).

For advertisers and agencies, Nielsen has recently expanded Nielsen ONE to include outcomes capabilities in addition to advanced audiences, planning and measurement. Nielsen continues to deliver deduplicated cross media solutions backed by gold standard data and accredited methodologies. Nielsen ONE is not submitted to MRC for auditing/evaluation at present but is planned for this in the future.

About 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.

Nielsen uniquely goes farther than device-level data, verifying at the persons-level with panel data. For instance, when Nielsen analyzes RPD or ACR data, the company can identify what devices are part of its panels and compare the tuning data in those homes to the individual viewing behavior captured by Nielsen meters. By using panels as a source of truth, Nielsen developed robust methods to calibrate big data, assign viewing to the right individuals, and project audience estimates to the entire TV population, not just those in the big data dataset. For more on Big Data + Panel, watch this video.

About Nielsen
Nielsen is a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics. Through our understanding of people and their behaviors across all channels and platforms, we empower our clients with independent and actionable intelligence so they can connect and engage with their global audiences—now and into the future.

For advertisers, agencies, and publishers, Nielsen has recently expanded Nielsen ONE to include outcomes capabilities, in addition to advanced audiences, planning and measurement. Nielsen's measurement is powered by person-level data from panels of over 1.2 million individuals and backed by the scale of the industry's largest big data footprint and broadest coverage across digital, linear, streaming, and CTV.

Learn more at www.nielsen.com and connect with us on social media (X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram).

SOURCE Nielsen