Nielsen Expands Streaming Video Tracking
April 22, 2021
Nielsen April 22 announced the launch of Nielsen Streaming Video Ratings, a syndicated service that provides visibility into total viewership and advanced audience demographic insights by streaming platform alongside linear TV ratings.
The new software aims to give media buyers the ability to make more-informed decisions about their advertising investments, while sellers can better assess competition and understand audience composition to better monetize their premium content.
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As viewing consumption continues to shift across linear and streaming services, it is critical to have full visibility into viewership trends across linear TV, VOD, subscription and ad-supported streaming services and audience demographic information such as race/ethnicity, household income, device types inside the home and location.
Nielsen Streaming Video Ratings will allow content creators, studios, platforms and advertisers to know which demos are engaging with the content, where content opportunities may be, which platforms are gaining momentum (and why) and which categories are driving the most engagement.
Nielsen estimates that among homes that can stream the share has gone from 18% to 25% in only a year’s time — a seven-percentage-point increase in a behavior that continues to see audience adoption and increased use. This type of audience shift is even more acute when looking at certain age and ethnic demographics, crucial insights for the entire media ecosystem to understand when creating, licensing, marketing and even casting talent of content.
For example, according to Nielsen Streaming Video Ratings among homes that are streaming capable, Netflix now accounts for about 7% of total TV time. One-third of streaming-capable homes access between three and four SVOD services per month, but nearly half of homes also use an ad-supported VOD service as well. Beyond SVOD and AVOD, linear streaming, such as online TV apps, has also emerged as a popular and viable consumer content option according to insights uncovered via Nielsen’s SVR service.
“By 2024, it’s estimated that streaming platforms will have amassed 210 million subscribers, which represents a staggering number of consumers and a major shift in media habits,” Kevin Rini, SVP of product management at Nielsen, said in a statement. “It will help any business buying, selling or investing in media to have the clear picture of the impact of these consumer shifts.”
At launch, Nielsen Streaming Video Ratings will include viewership details from 10 top streaming platforms as well as seven categories of apps including subscription-based, ad-supported, network, social, gaming as well as multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD) and online TV apps.