Nielsen Launches National Out-of-Home Service

Nielsen has announced the commercial availability of its National Out-of-Home Reporting Service and that ESPN has subscribed to be the first client. This opt-in service will provide ESPN and other television networks that subscribe with program and commercial ratings for live through live + 7 days of time-shifted viewing. In addition to ESPN, ESPN2 will also opt-in to be measured with this service.

“Way before TV was multi-platform, it was multi-place—especially for millions of sports fans,” said Ed Erhardt, President, ESPN Global Sales and Marketing. “We are very pleased that Nielsen is now able to effectively measure this valuable audience and make the data available to the entire industry. It is a significant step forward in measuring the unmeasured to create an accurate total live audience metric.”

Subscribing networks will receive individual day data for program and commercial audience estimates delivered on a weekly basis. Nielsen will combine the in-home viewing from its National TV ratings panel with the out-of-home viewing captured by the Portable People Meter (PPM), providing clients with actionable data that quantifies the incremental audience that out-of-home viewing delivers. This new service represents the first electronic syndicated service that measures both in-home and out-of-home audiences. Nielsen’s National Out-of-Home Reporting Service will also be available to all Nielsen clients including broadcasters, cable networks, sports leagues and agencies.

“Given ESPN’s history as a pioneer in out-of-home measurement we are delighted to have them on board as our lead client. This service will allow ESPN and other networks to quantify the incremental lift that out-of-home viewing brings to their ratings,” said Lynda Clarizio, President of U.S. Media for Nielsen. “As consumers routinely watch television outside of their own homes, whether in a bar during a big game or in a hotel or elsewhere, it’s imperative to capture that viewing. Measuring out-of-home audiences is another example of our commitment to providing clients with a more complete picture of their audiences through our Nielsen Total Audience measurement framework.”

The National Out-of-Home reporting service leverages Nielsen’s PPM technology from nearly 77,000 installed panelists. This data will derive from 44 Local TV markets, enabling Nielsen to project what people watch outside of the home across 65% of the TV U.S. household population.

The PPM device’s portability enables Nielsen to measure TV viewing outside of the home including locations such as bars, restaurants, hotels, gyms and second homes. These real viewing occurrences will enable clients to quantify the ratings lift produced by Linear TV viewing from outside of the home.

“For more than two decades ESPN and Nielsen have been at the forefront of out-of-home measurement. The launch of Nielsen’s National Out-Of-Home Reporting Service will deliver syndicated measurement for a sought-after but untapped audience,” said Artie Bulgrin, Senior Vice President, Fan and Media Intelligence, ESPN. “This new service is a major milestone in helping the industry measure and monetize this additional viewing.”