NEW YORK—The year-plus rollout of new measurement technology from Nielsen has been completed, the company announced on Thursday, Oct. 3. Nielsen has finalized additions of advanced meter technology, big data and people-powered panels to its local TV measurement service in 71 markets for in-depth and accurate metrics on what people are actually viewing in local broadcast markets.
With this latest batch of installments, plus the 137 markets that were updated in the summer of 2018, Nielsen has applied these changes to 208 local TV markets.
Nielsen had deployed Portable People Meter measurement integrated with existing TV panels in 25 Local People Meter and 19 Set-Meter markets, which according to Nielsen doubles the number of households and people in samples, on average, for local TV ratings. In the other 27 markets that have added these new services, 12 Set-Meter and 15 Code Reader markets will integrate return path data and National People Meter homes, resulting in an increased sample size of more than 2 million return path data households.
“The local TV environment has changed and the industry has long awaited developments in measurement that capture the myriad viewing preferences of our audiences,” said Wendy McMahon, president of ABC Owned Television Stations Group. “Nielsen’s Local TV measurement delivers greater accuracy and stability on the audience’s size and composition giving us a better understanding of audience behavior and delivering greater ROI to our advertisers.”
