MIAMI — The upfronts season, in which US TV networks tempt ad buyers to open their wallets by presenting their roster of programming, has begun – and Nielsen is hoping it is just in time for buyers to judge the likely audiences using its new viewer data products.
The measurement firms’ new Total Audience Measurement system, to ascertain audiences from across many media types, has been delayed and is now in “evaluation” stage, but Nielsen US media president Lynda Clarizio says the yardstick is coming soon, while new systems offer enhanced connected TV viewer measurement.
“We completed the infrastructure in 2015,” she tells Beet.TV in this video interview. “Now we have a number of clients that have seen the data, are evaluating the data. The next stage will be syndication, which we expect to be later in Q2 or early Q3.”
Nielsen has previously told AdAge that, when multi-platform viewing is made visible by Total Audience Measurement, TV networks see, on average, viewership is 10% higher than previously thought, and as high as 50% higher.
In the meantime, starting this month, Nielsen is lighting up new visibility of TV viewership via Roku, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Google Chromecast, Xbox, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo Wii and smart TVs. The move comes via a 50,000-strong panel of viewers owning those devices and will help brands understand how viewership breaks down by device type, not just by media channel.
All in all, Clarizio hopes the new data points will help influence the season in which around $70 billion of TV ad spend is up for grabs.
“We’re hoping that the data is influencing the upfronts and people are starting to make different decisions about how they’re going to transact,” she says. “We’re starting to hear that from some of our clients already.
This video was recorded at the 4A’s Transformation conference in Miami. For additional interviews, please visit this page. Beet.TV’s coverage of the 4A’s was sponsored by The Trade Desk.
