Diving Brief:
- Nielsen and Amazon have signed a three-year measurement agreement around broadcasts of NFL’s e-commerce giant “Thursday Night Football”, by press release.
- Beginning with the 2022 season, Nielsen will measure full program coverage on Prime Video and Twitch, as well as live stations in local markets and out-of-home viewing. “Thursday Night Football” will be measured and treated like all other NFL games using the Nielsen panel.
- Nielsen touts the deal, the first of its kind, as proof that its struggling national television measurement service is capable of handling shifts in consumer viewing behaviors. Amazon provides advertisers with metrics from its platform that combine first- and third-party data.
Overview of the dive:
Nielsen’s pact with Amazon over “Thursday Night Football” shows how the measurement firm is evolving its offerings in a changing television landscape and other challenges to its longstanding dominance over the industry. The deal represents the first time a streaming service will have a live program measured as part of Nielsen’s national ratings. Amazon last year caught the exclusive rights to the coveted “Thursday Night Football” program in a historic 11-year agreement.
Nielsen is advocating for the continued viability of its National TV Ratings Panel by moving the solution to Amazon’s digital model, with plans to measure pre-game, game and post-game content on Prime Video and Twitch the same way the company does for other NFLs. Games. The move also provides advertisers with the same metrics used on national networks for some of the best TV shows.
“We are committed to providing comparable and comprehensive measurements of all audiences, across all platforms, and this agreement to measure [‘Thursday Night Football’] the number of viewers is a testament to that commitment,” Deirdre Thomas, general manager of U.S. audience measurement product sales at Nielsen, said in a statement.
For Amazon, using Nielsen’s tools allows advertisers to make “apples to apples” comparisons on their media investments, Srishti Gupta, director of media measurement at Amazon Ads, said in a statement. The tech giant is also able to provide advertisers with insights on brand awareness, engagement and sales. The combination of first-party and third-party data demonstrates the power of Amazon’s capabilities as an advertising platform. Amazon’s ad sales segment grew revenue 18% year-on-year to $8.76 billion in the second quarter.
Securing the measurement rights for “Thursday Night Football” is a big win for Nielsen, which has faced ongoing struggles amid the decline of linear television and the rise of streaming. The pressure peaked last year when she lost accreditation from industry watchdog the Media Rating Council on measurement discrepancies that occurred at the height of the pandemic.
Nielsen last week announced additions to its panel assets and expects to complete the audit components required for re-accreditation in the next quarter. He also worked on the launch of his Nielsen One cross-platform measurement solution, which it plans to launch by the end of the year. Nielsen in April was acquired by a private equity consortium for $16 billion.
