For advertisers who want to start reaching consumers through new video platforms in the same way they are familiar with from TV, Nielsen had good news last week.
The media measurement agency announced it would now provide measurement for viewing through the Hulu and YouTube TV platforms, which some see as new-look digital alternatives to traditional cable TV subscriptions.
In this video interview with Beet.TV, Nielsen product leadership SVP Kelly Abcarian explains how it works – and what it means.
“Our partners embed the SDK or enable us to get measurement of their data so that we can measure at a census level the viewing that’s occurring in the ecosystem,” she says. “Then we calibrate that data with the high-quality panels so that we can produce a comparable rating as if that was being captured through that panel itself.”
Although there is a growing number of online viewing packages and “skinny bundles” like DISH’s Sling TV service, Abcarian imagines consumers trying many of the options, and settling down with their preferred subscription, just like with cable-TV, she says.
But, with few of the new platforms offering measurement currencies familiar from the TV world, some fear TV dollars will not flow to digital as fast as they otherwise might.
Speaking of her own solution, Abcarian says: “(YouTube has) rolled it out across 15 markets, with plans to continue to expand across many more. In the case of Hulu live, it’s nationally across all of the markets.
“People are recognising that independent, third-party measurement is key so that advertisers have confidence in transacting against these audiences coming to these platforms.”
