Nielsen, Amazon Seal “Thursday Night Football” Rating Agreement; Numbers to include out-of-home viewing, Twitch and local TV

Nielsen and Amazon reach historic agreement to measure audience which will kick off its unprecedented run next month as an exclusive stream on Prime Video.

Starting next month, items from pre-game, in-game and post-game streams will count towards ratings on both Prime Video and Twitch. Local TV station broadcasting in both teams’ home markets, guaranteed by long-standing NFL rules, and away-from-home viewing will also add to the metric, allowing it to be a stronger (if not completely apples-to-apples) figure than NFL games on Sunday and Monday. .

The 3-year deal marks the first time a streaming service has been included in Nielsen’s national television metering service and also the first for live programming. Nielsen has captured total streaming on Netflix, Prime Video, Disney +, and Hulu over the past couple of years, adding Apple TV + and HBO Max to those streaming charts. The company provides the numbers almost a month after the fact, for reasons related to both technological and logistical considerations and diplomatic relations with customers.

The numbers will be delivered in the same time frame as the rest of the national numbers for broadcast and cable media, according to the new configuration. The official announcement did not specify delivery times.

Thursday night’s NFL games drew 16.4 million viewers on Fox, NFL Network and Prime Video, a 16% increase from last year. (Prime previously offered game simulcasts.) Citing the sources in the media buyer, The Wall Street newspaper said Amazon has told advertisers to expect 12.6 million viewers for 15 games this year. Amazon said 80 million households have access to Prime Video. It will take some time to adjust as viewers transition from linear to streaming.

Fox, NBC, and CBS shared the rights to the Thursday night NFL show for the past decade before Amazon paid $ 1.2 billion annually for exclusive rights over the next 11 years. The tech giant is making significant investments in live sports, with the goal of capturing a larger share of the tens of billions spent each year on television advertising. Last May, he made a promotional appearance at Lincoln Center during NewFronts, welcoming Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit to the stage. In addition to the duo, Amazon has hired several other football experts, both behind and in front of the camera, including executive producer Fred Gaudel, who appeared alongside Michaels on NBC. Sunday night football Jugger for 16 seasons.

Last month, Amazon said ad serving revenue increased 18% year-over-year to $ 8.76 billion in Q2 2021, outpacing other digital ad creators in the quarter due to multiple economic challenges. .

In a press release, the companies promised that Thursday night’s broadcast “will be measured and processed like all other NFL games, using a Nielsen panel, allowing the same metrics to be reported in all other NFL games.” comparisons “.

The NFL continues to dominate the market, with games and shoulder programming occupying 47 of the top 50 overall rankings.

Nielsen has seen its reputation weaken slightly in the past few years or two, with networks and advertisers saying the company lacks both streaming and linear viewers, but remains a dominant force in measurement despite new challenges from a number of emerging services. .

“Nielsen is a long-time leader in the measurement space providing the gold standard currency to the media industry and we are thrilled that Amazon recognizes this and is working with us to bring a streaming service to our measurement. On national television for the first time time. weather. ” Never, “said Deirdre Thomas, general manager of sales of Nielsen Audience Measurement Products in the Americas.” We are committed to providing comprehensive and comparable measurement of all audiences, across all platforms, and to measure this agreement. TNF The public is proof of this commitment. “

Shrishti Gupta, director of media measurement at Amazon Ads, said the company aims to “deliver a new visual experience and offer new ways to connect with current and future fans.” The partnership with Nielsen, he added, “allows us to provide advertisers with familiar campaign metrics to compare apples to apples of their multichannel media investments. Additionally, advertisers will have access to Amazon metrics that provide insights into understanding brand awareness, engagement and sales. This powerful combination of proprietary and third-party metrics is something only Amazon can do.

The new gauge will begin with the preseason game on August 25 before the regular season starts on September 15.