The Media Rating Council (MRC) on Wednesday formally accredited Nielsen’s Big Data & Panel National TV measurement product, which paves the way for Nielsen’s traditional panel measurements to be integrated with data from streaming apps and smart TVs.
The accreditation is a nod of approval for Nielsen’s Big Data & Panel National TV measurement solution, which combines its traditional panel measurements with data from 75 million streaming devices, set-top boxes and smart TVs covering 45 million households.
Karthik Rao, the CEO of Nielsen, said the accreditation by MRC will “forever change audience measurement” across television channels, services and apps.
“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,” Rao stated on Wednesday. “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.”
Nielsen has been criticized in recent years for its over-reliance on panel measurement, which has a smaller sample size relative to opt-in, connected TV devices. Some broadcasters have moved away from Nielsen’s measurement products, while others have looked to measurement solutions provided by Comscore and VideoAmp as alternative currencies for their ratings, pricing and distribution needs.
Combining Nielsen’s panel and streaming data allows it to offer comparable ratings and consumption data, backed by the biggest name in TV measurement. The MRC’s nod of approval indicates Nielsen’s panel and streaming data measurement tool is ready for prime-time, so to say.
“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,” George Ivie, the CEO and Executive Director of MRC, said in a statement. “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.”
It is the first time MRC has given its approval to a hybrid panel-big data product, the organization said.
