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Nielsen to measure Netflix audiences in three countries

The expanded business deal will see Nielsen measurement Netflix's audience in the U.S., Mexico and Poland.

The expanded business deal will see Nielsen measurement Netflix's audience in the U.S., Mexico and Poland.

The Netflix startup screen appears on a laptop computer. (Photo by Jade87 via Pixabay/Graphic by The Desk)

Nielsen says it has expanded its business with Netflix that will see the analytics firm measure the streaming service’s audience across the United States, Mexico and Poland.

As part of the multi-year agreement, Netflix will subscribe to Nielsen’s national TV measurement data and streaming platform ratings products; in Mexico and Poland, Netflix will subscribe to cross-platform audience insights, which the company says is derived from streaming panels in those markets.

““We’re honored to continue working with Netflix to provide them with the insights they need to understand their audience as media consumption evolves,” Kim Gilberti, the senior vice president of product management at Nielsen, said in a statement on Wednesday. “As we move closer to providing comparable and de-duplicated metrics across screens and platforms with Nielsen One, this agreement with Netflix is another great example of why Nielsen is well positioned to lead the audience measurement movement now and in the future.”

“The biggest shift in entertainment continues to be from linear TV to streaming and Nielsen’s Gauge shows where viewers spend their time, and how their consumption patterns are changing,” Pablo Perez de Rosso, Netflix’s vice president of strategy, planning and analysis, said. “This information is essential for the industry, and we’re excited to continue to work with Nielsen in Mexico and Poland.”

Netflix’s expanded pact with Nielsen comes more than two months after the streamer launched a lower-price version of its service that is subsidized by short commercial breaks inserted at various points of the viewing experience. The plan, called Netflix with Ads, is part of a broader strategy to reverse subscriber losses and add additional revenue streams at a time when Netflix and other media companies face increased pressure from shareholders to curb losses stemming from outsized content spending and other operational expenses.

The partnership also lends some confidence to Nielsen at a time when other media companies are increasingly looking for alternative firms for audience-related data. Earlier this month, a consortium of broadcasters and studios announced plans to team up with the Video Advertising Bureau and ad firm OpenAP “with the primary focus of creating a measurement certification process to establish the suitability of emerging cross-platform measurement solutions in advance of the 2024 upfront.” The upfront presentations, typically held annually in late spring, is an event where media reveal their content and business strategies to potential ad buyers.

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About the Author:

Matthew Keys

Matthew Keys covers the business of broadcast and streaming TV, radio broadcasting, social media, technology and telecommunications. A journalist for over 15 years, Matthew previously worked at Thomson Reuters, KGO-TV in San Francisco, KTXL in Sacramento and McNaughton Newspapers. He received 9 California Journalism Awards between 2018 and 2020, and is a member of IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors).
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