Nielsen Set To Spring OOH Ratings For TV

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National television clients seeking a more complete consumer metric to share with marketers and advertisers will have a new service from Nielsen in their hands, come April 2017.


Leveraging the Portable People Meter (PPM), which has been used to detect and measure audience exposure to AM and FM radio stations, Nielsen has given the go to a national television out-of-home measurement service.

The PPM-based estimates will  be available for Nielsen’s national television clients in 44 local markets, with the first batch of data available reflecting the January 2017 measurement period.  Data back to September 2016 will be added shortly after launch.

Clients that subscribe to the OOH TV ratings will receive audience estimates that combine in-home television viewing, based on Nielsen’s National TV ratings panel, with the out-of-home viewing based on its PPM panels.

Nielsen plans to provide subscribing clients with individual day data for program and commercial audience estimates on a weekly basis. While this new offering will launch as a standalone service, Nielsen plans to incorporate out-of-home viewing directly into its currency national television ratings at a later stage.

Nielsen did not state if it plans to distribute out-of-home only data, as the focus is on a total measurement metric that both networks and clients have been craving for years.

Thank The Walt Disney Co. and ESPN for pushing Nielsen toward using the PPM for out-of-home TV ratings estimates.

Artie Bulgrin, SVP of Global Research & Analytics at ESPN, said the entertainment and sports programming network worked with Nielsen some 20 years ago to pioneer the first iteration of out-of-home TV measurement.

“This new advancement using passive, real-time technology represents a significant leap forward,” Bulgrin said in prepared comments. “We know that ESPN is viewed virtually anywhere there is a screen — from sports bars to gyms, hotels and the workplace. While C3, C7 [program and commercial ratings] and beyond are useful to measuring catch-up viewing in the home, this new service gives us the ability to capture out-of-home viewing precisely as it happens.”

Thus, ESPN has a new and “valuable” ability to match advertisers with its audience segments.

Specifically, the new PPM-derived OOH TV service will provide both C3 and C7 ratings for live through live + 7 days of time-shifted viewing.

Nielsen’s launch of its National TV Out-of-Home Measurement Service is another example of the company’s commitment to measuring the total audience everywhere and on every platform consumers watch content. Data from more than 75,000 PPM panelists across the 44 local markets will enabling Nielsen to project out-of-home viewing in over half of U.S. population, the ratings company said.

In addition to ESPN, Time Warner‘s Turner operating division also gives a thumb’s up to the PPM-based OOH TV ratings.

“Today’s audience measurement requires constant innovation to capture the full scope of audience behavior,” said Turner Chief Research Officer Howard Shimmel. “In collaboration with Nielsen, we were first-to-market using PPM technology for custom out-of-home solutions for CNN. Nielsen’s new national TV out-of-home measurement service will help us drive these capabilities forward.”

Sara Erichson, EVP of Nielsen Client Solutions and Audience Insights, added, “While consumers have always watched TV outside the home, that viewing has not been measured. This new measurement enables both buyers and sellers to understand the incremental reach of advertising messages.”