NEW YORK—Paramount Global and Nielsen have inked a new, multiyear deal that will provide measurement for all of the company’s platforms, including national and local broadcast, all cable networks,and streaming on Paramount+ and Pluto TV.
In addition, Paramount has licensed new Nielsen services as part of this agreement, including Advanced Audiences, Big Data + Panel, Ad-Supported Streaming Platform Ratings, Nielsen One Ads for Connected Television and national out-of-home expansion to inform advertising, programming and licensing strategies.
“Paramount and Nielsen are committed to addressing Television’s multiplatform future to the benefit of all of our stakeholders,” George Cheeks, president and CEO of CBS and co-CEO, Paramount Global, said. “[Nielsen CEO] Karthik [Rao] and his team continue to meet the needs of our marketplace across all our platforms, and we are incredibly pleased to reinforce and reinvigorate our deal with our longtime partner.”
Along with the new agreement, Nielsen also released new viewing data for Paramount.
In terms of sports, the data showed that CBS’s broadcast of the AFC Championship Game on Jan.26 averaged 57.7 million viewers, setting the all-time record for the AFC and the largest overall NFL conference championship in 15 years. CBS coverage of the 2024 NFL regular season included three of the top five NFL games in October; the highest rated game (27.5 million viewers) in the November interval; and two of the top five in a hotly contested December.
As the broadcast season swung into action this fall, the data also showed that CBS was once again establishing itself as a leader in broadcast dramas, building on its track record to develop new franchises. “Tracker” came back for its second season and took the crown as the top drama program in October (11.3 million average viewers), November (11.6 million) and December (10.8 million).
The reimagined “Matlock” came in a close second to “Tracker” in all three months and was joined by “FBI,” “Elsbeth,” “NCIS,” and the farewell season of “Blue Bloods” in the top 10 every month this fall. The total viewing time by Americans of CBS dramas across the fourth quarter of 2024 topped 50 trillion viewing minutes, which approaches 100,000 years of viewing, more than any other broadcast network.
Paramount+ also experienced major success in 2024 with original series “Lioness,” “Tulsa King” and one of the most talked about shows of the season, “Landman,” which has given the platform its first billion-minute (in a week) performer. The three titles have all appeared in the Nielsen Streaming Top 10 simultaneously in multiple weeks this fall, another first for the platform. Paramount also earned wins for its multi-platform strategy. In 2024, the most-watched new dramas across broadcast and streaming combined were Tracker, with 26.07 billion minutes viewed (CBS, Paramount+, Hulu) and “Elsbeth,” with 14.94 billion minutes viewed (CBS, Paramount+).
