[Asia Economy Reporter Jeong Hyunjin] TV ratings measurement company Nielsen has decided to measure the viewership ratings of online video services (OTT) for the first time ever, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on the 16th (local time).
According to the report, Nielsen has signed a contract with Amazon to start measuring the ratings of Thursday games of the National Football League (NFL) broadcast on the OTT platform Amazon Prime Video. Starting next month, Nielsen will count the number of viewers for NFL games streamed on Prime Video for three years. WSJ stated that this is the first time Nielsen will measure OTT viewership ratings.
Nielsen's weekly viewership reports have been an important indicator for determining advertising rates. Until now, ratings were primarily measured based on TV, but as viewers' content consumption platforms have diversified recently, Nielsen's ratings indicators, which did not reflect this change, have been criticized for being inaccurate.
Nielsen emphasized that this contract signifies the importance of their ratings measurement in the media ecosystem.
Nielsen will also use its existing household panel of 42,000 households, which has been used for measuring ratings of traditional TV broadcasts and cable channels, to count the number of viewers for the NFL broadcasts. They will mainly measure the number of viewers watching Prime Video on TV and expand the measurement to include devices such as smartphones, tablet PCs, and laptops.
Amazon plans to provide its own viewing data to advertisers. It is reported that Amazon estimates 80 million Prime Video households and expects the average number of viewers per NFL game this season to reach 12.6 million.
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