NEW YORK— Fox Sports is taking Nielsen out-of-home numbers. The TV metrics institution said the net is the latest subscriber to its National Out-of-Home Reporting Service. The multi-year agreement provides the Fox Sports broadcast network, FS1, FS2 and Fox Deportes with program and commercial ratings for live through live-plus-seven days of time-shifted viewing.
“Sports are being watched everywhere, every day and on every type of screen. Our business has to keep pace with changes in viewer behavior,” said Eric Shanks, President, chief operating officer and executive producer for Fox Sports. “Nielsen’s out-of-home measurement enables us to measure our audience wherever they may be, which in turn allows us to better service the advertising industry.”
Fox’s NFL regular season saw a 16 percent lift from out-of-home measurement among adults 18-49. Furthermore, Nielsen’s out-of-home service data pointed to a younger, more diverse, more female and more affluent audience than Fox Sports’ in-home NFL audience.
Fox Sports and its networks will receive weekly reports that include daily data for program and commercial audience estimates. The out-of-home viewing data will be derived from Nielsen’s Portable People Meter technology and combined with national TV ratings. The expanded audience estimate will enable Fox Sports to ascertain viewing that occurs in locations such as hotels, gyms, bars and the workplace. Furthermore, the PPM is equipped with detection technology to know when a panelist is in-home versus out-of-home, allowing Nielsen to capture and credit Linear TV content anywhere the viewer is watching or listening to TV.
The National Out-of-Home Reporting Service is the first electronic measurement service that provides viewing estimates for both in-home and out-of-home. This opt-in service leverages Nielsen’s PPM technology from nearly 77,000 installed panelists. Using a fusion methodology to combine the PPM footprint across 44 local TV markets with Nielsen’s national representative panel, Nielsen is able to represent 65 percent of the TV U.S. household population to project what people are watching outside of their homes.
