Not that Netflix is open to advertisers yet – but, if it ever is, those advertisers may credit 2017 as the year when the building blocks of third-party Netflix measurement were put in place.
Nielsen just switched on measurement for 13,000 streaming Netflix shows using TV-style ratings based on age and gender – the same thing advertisers have used to buy linear TV ads for decades.
Nielsen actually began measuring streaming content in 2014 via an opt-in service. But, until now, clients needed to submit their own audio signatures for the shows they wanted to measure. Now Nielsen has enhanced the system with signatures for all those Netflix shows as a syndicated service inside its SVOD Content Ratings.
“We are starting with Netflix, but the goal is to extend this out to the SVOD landscape as a whole,” says Nielsen’s product management SVP Kelly Abcarian in this video interview with Beet.TV. “It really is enabling them to understand that total audience consumption at an age/gender break and a true comparable rating to linear television.”
Today, it seems like Nielsen’s best customer base for the product will be TV show makers themselves, as they try to better understand their work’s consumption and gain leverage for carriage negotiation.
“For the first time, we are bringing transparency across to non-linear viewing of audiences, to services such as Netflix,” Abcarian says.
“That transparency is very critical for our media owners and studio houses who are working and want to understand the audience sizes to this content, so that, when they go to the negotiation table, they have data that enables them to empower their decision-making process.”
Nielsen says eight major television networks and production studios, including A&E Networks, Disney-ABC, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, Warner Brothers and others, have already signed on to subscribe to the service.
But, if Netflix ever did switch on advertising, it seems like a solution would be in place to help the trading of ads there, too.
Ampere Analysis analyst Richard Broughton has previously told Beet.TV that Netflix could make up to $8bn from a full switch to advertising.
This video is part of a series of Beet.TV’s coverage of the Advanced Advertising conference held during NYC TV Week. Beet.TV’s coverage is presented by 4C Insights. Please find additional videos on this page.
