Nielsen said it is expanding the panel it uses to measure out-of-home TV viewing, which will mean bigger ratings for sports programming.

Nielsen currently has portable people meters that viewers wear in 50 of the biggest markets, representing 65% of the country.

After the expansion it will have meter-wearing panelists in every state except Alaska and Hawaii.

Expanding to 100% coverage of the continental U.S. will result in an increase in OOH contribution to the national data, a Nielsen spokesman said.

Nielsen began capturing viewing in locations such as airports, hotels, bard and restaurants about 10 years ago. It started including those viewers in its national ratings in 2020.

Also Read: In New Error, Nielsen Admits It Left Out Some Out-of-Home Viewing

According to Nielsen, in 2023 fans in the U.S. spent more than 1.7 trillion minutes watching games from the five most-watched sports leagues. 

Out of home viewing gets trickier to measure as more viewers turn to streaming and more sports programming appears on streaming platforms.

Also Read: Nielsen, Arbitron Team Up on Portable People Meter

“Nielsen is highly focused on innovating in order to better serve our clients and ensure our measurement accounts for the full landscape of television consumption,” Deirdre Thomas, chief product officer, audience measurement, said. “We understand how important it is for our clients to be able to have the most complete picture of the audience, especially for special events like the Super Bowl.”

Nielsen plans to provide data including the additional meters in the fourth quarter of 2024, in time for Super Bowl LIX in 2025.

“We are appreciative of Nielsen’s efforts to make out-of-home measurement more complete, providing a much clearer picture of the true audience for all television viewing and especially sports viewership,” Paul Ballew, chief data and analytics officer at the NFL, said. “For years we have been consistent in our belief that major sports events, like the upcoming Super Bowl LVIII, are often viewed with family and friends in large gatherings and this expanded out-of-home viewership will be crucial to measuring those events.”

The National Football League said it worked with Nielsen on a special study looking at viewing of its games on Thanksgiving Day (November 24) in group settings and found its games reach an average of more than 20 million additional viewers.

According to the study, the games had an average-minute audience of 44.1 million viewers, up 31% from the 33.6 million Nielsen initially reported. 

Networks have been challenging Nielsen’s ability to measure audiences. Nielsen lost its accreditation from the Media Rating Council when it was found that Nielsen undercounted viewing during the pandemic.

Also: NBCU Claims Big Ad Impact Over Thanksgiving Weekend

"Quantifying the exact number of people watching NFL games on Thanksgiving presents additional challenges due to the fact that so many people gather in different group settings with family and friends," Paul Ballew, chief data and analytics officer of the NFL, said. "As was the case with our study around the Super Bowl, we feel this Nielsen custom survey helps provide a more complete picture of the total viewership for this unique day on the NFL calendar."

Nielsen measures viewing in bars, restaurants and other out-of-home locations and those viewers are included in the national ratings used by networks and advertisers.

The special custom study looked at 5,800 households and was conducted by NORC at the University of Chicago using the AmeriSpeak panel. It looked at the size of viewing groups and how much larger those groups are than current measurement systems count.

A similar study found that an estimated 208 million people watch Super Bowl LVI.

“The tradition of family gatherings and NFL football on Thanksgiving Day is endemic to American culture,” Jon Stainer, Nielsen Sports managing director for the Americas, said. “We’re honored to continue working with the NFL on this custom study to help them better understand the size and behaviors of group viewing parties outside our co-viewing measurement.” ■

Under pressure from clients who felt blindsided, Nielsen will include out-of-home viewing in its national ratings starting in September as originally planned.

On Thursday, Nielsen told clients that it was delaying adding out-of-home viewing to ratings because of complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We regret any disruption we may have caused you, your customers, and the market this week. Going forward, we are committed to ensuring a more complete, inclusive, and transparent process as the currency evolves with changing consumer behavior,” Nielsen CEO David Kenny said in a letter sent to clients late Friday.

TV networks had been counting on selling those extra viewers to advertisers--especially in sports programming--and complained.

ViacomCBS called the Wednesday decision “unacceptable and unjustifiable” and VAB, the industry trade group representing the biggest TV ad sellers, sent an "urgent" letter to Kenny imploring the measurement company to integrate the out-of-home data "without delay."

In his letter Friday, Kenny said that “after speaking with many clients and learning more about your specific agreements for the upcoming season, it became clear that we had misunderstood the extent to which upfront deals have already been agreed to using out-of-home metrics. Given the circumstances, we recognize that a delay would cause greater disruption to the industry than maintaining our original plan.”

The VAB expressed relief that Nielsen moves quickly to resolve what could have been a problem in the middle of an already chaotic upfront market.

“While gratified by the speed with which Nielsen reversed their postponement plan, it was crystal clear that a quick reversal was Nielsen’s only viable option,” said VAB CEO Sean Cunningham. “Marketers are deep into planning and activation discussions with their multiscreen TV ad sales partners, the last thing advertisers need in 2020 is an unnecessary step backwards from a currency provider, the TV industry’s solidarity in always pushing for innovation made sure that potential delay was eliminated quickly.”

Here is the text of Kenny's letter:

At Nielsen, we take pride in providing the market with transparent metrics that our clients can use to transact with confidence.

Earlier this week we communicated a delay to our plans to integrate out-of-home audiences into the National TV currency this fall. Our concern was about consumer behavior, and not the Nielsen methodology. While out-of-home audiences have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, our methodology is strong and the data is reflective of consumer behavior.

That said, after speaking with many clients and learning more about your specific agreements for the upcoming season, it became clear that we had misunderstood the extent to which upfront deals have already been agreed to using out-of-home metrics. Given the circumstances, we recognize that a delay would cause greater disruption to the industry than maintaining our original plan. I also believe Nielsen needs to deliver on our promises, so that you can transact with trust and confidence. Therefore, Nielsen will move forward with the integration of out-of-home TV viewing into the National TV currency measurement starting in September 2020, as originally planned. We will also provide additional data on out-of-home behavior to help you interpret behavior shifts during the pandemic.

We regret any disruption we may have caused you, your customers, and the market this week. Going forward, we are committed to ensuring a more complete, inclusive, and transparent process as the currency evolves with changing consumer behavior.

Respectfully yours,

David Kenny CEO and Chief Diversity Officer Nielsen

Under pressure from clients who felt blindsided, Nielsen will include out-of-home viewing in its national ratings starting in September as originally planned.

On Wedneday, Nielsen told clients that it was delaying adding out-of-home viewing to ratings because of complications caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We regret any disruption we may have caused you, your customers, and the market this week. Going forward, we are committed to ensuring a more complete, inclusive, and transparent process as the currency evolves with changing consumer behavior,” Nielsen CEO David Kenny said in a letter sent to clients late Friday.

TV networks had been counting on selling those extra viewers to advertisers--especially in sports programming--and complained. 

ViacomCBS called the Wednesday decision “unacceptable and unjustifiable” and VAB, the industry trade group representing the biggest TV ad sellers, sent an "urgent" letter to Kenny imploring the measurement company to integrate the out-of-home data "without delay."

In his letter Friday, Kenny said that “after speaking with many clients and learning more about your specific agreements for the upcoming season, it became clear that we had misunderstood the extent to which upfront deals have already been agreed to using out-of-home metrics. Given the circumstances, we recognize that a delay would cause greater disruption to the industry than maintaining our original plan.”

The VAB expressed relief that Nielsen moves quickly to resolve what could have been a problem in the middle of an already chaotic upfront market.  

“While gratified by the speed with which Nielsen reversed their postponement plan, it was crystal clear that a quick reversal was Nielsen’s only viable option,”  said VAB CEO Sean Cunningham. “Marketers are deep into planning and activation discussions with their multiscreen TV ad sales partners, the last thing advertisers need in 2020 is an unnecessary step backwards from a currency provider, the TV industry’s solidarity in always pushing for innovation made sure that potential delay was eliminated quickly.”  

Here is the text of Kenny's letter:

At Nielsen, we take pride in providing the market with transparent metrics that our clients can use to transact with confidence. 

Earlier this week we communicated a delay to our plans to integrate out-of-home audiences into the National TV currency this fall. Our concern was about consumer behavior, and not the Nielsen methodology. While out-of-home audiences have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, our methodology is strong and the data is reflective of consumer behavior. 

That said, after speaking with many clients and learning more about your specific agreements for the upcoming season, it became clear that we had misunderstood the extent to which upfront deals have already been agreed to using out-of-home metrics. Given the circumstances, we recognize that a delay would cause greater disruption to the industry than maintaining our original plan. I also believe Nielsen needs to deliver on our promises, so that you can transact with trust and confidence. Therefore, Nielsen will move forward with the integration of out-of-home TV viewing into the National TV currency measurement starting in September 2020, as originally planned. We will also provide additional data on out-of-home behavior to help you interpret behavior shifts during the pandemic.  

We regret any disruption we may have caused you, your customers, and the market this week. Going forward, we are committed to ensuring a more complete, inclusive, and transparent process as the currency evolves with changing consumer behavior. 

Respectfully yours,  

David Kenny CEO and Chief Diversity Officer Nielsen

ViacomCBS blasted adding out-of-home viewers to its ratings.

The move is a particular blow to networks with sports programming--especially the NFL--including CBS.

Related: VAB Calls on Nielsen to Reverse OOH Delay

“Nielsen’s abrupt delay of the long-planned integration of OOH viewing into the National TV currency less than two months before it was scheduled to be implemented is unacceptable and unjustifiable,” ViacomCBS said in a statement. “ViacomCBS – along with our peers and the VAB – is calling on Nielsen to reverse its decision.”

Related: Nielsen Delays Adding Out-of-Home to Ratings

Nielsen was supposed to integrate out-of-home viewers into its ratings in September. It began telling clients about the delay on Wednesday.

The ratings company, often an industry punching bag, blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for the problem.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a far reaching effect on the media industry and on consumer viewing habits,” Nielsen said in a statement.

“In recent days, several states have started to pause their reopening and local governments are considering the reimplementation of stay-at-home orders. With future uncertainty around how the pandemic will further impact out-of-home viewing, Fall 2020 is not the ideal time to integrate this measurement into currency. While a new implementation date has not been determined, Nielsen is prepared to complete the integration when appropriate and will reassess the situation in Q1 2021”

In the meantime, Nielsen will provide standalone reports on how many people watch shows--and ballgames--in bars, hotels, health clubs and other public spaces.

Many networks have negotiated to have out-of-home audiences counted in advertising buys. Some clients have bought the larger viewing numbers.

But as the football season approaches, as well as the resumption of basketball and hockey and the delayed beginning of the baseball season, some deals that had been reached incorporating out-of-home viewing may have to be redone.

CBS signed up for out-of-home measurement from Nielsen in 2017. At the time, it noted that adding out-of-home viewing boosted ratings for NCAA Men’s basketball Final Four games by 1.1 million viewers or 18.9%.

ESPN and Turner at that point were also getting out-of-home ratings from Nielsen.

VAB, the trade group representing the biggest TV ad sales organizations, is calling on Nielsen to reverse its plan to delay the integration of out-of-home viewing into its national ratings.

In an "urgent" letter to Nielsen CEO David Kenny, VAB CEO Sean Cunningham said the VAB board disagreed with both the substance and the handling of the decision.

“We believe it puts all parties in the TV marketplace at an unnecessary disadvantage, and as one of your largest sets of Nielsen customers, we implore you to return to plan: with OOH viewing data fully integrated into a single stream of currency data without postponement or delay,” Cunningham’s letter said.

Nielsen began informing clients of the postponement due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic Wednesday. The decision comes amid a particular chaotic upfront selling season for the TV industry amid a pandemic that disrupted many advertisers’ ad spending plans.

The move particularly hurts TV networks with sports programming, especially the NFL, which gets big chunks of viewing in bars, health clubs and hotels.

ViacomCBS, which airs NFL games, called Nielsen’s move “unacceptable and unjustifiable” in a statement late Thursday.

The VAB letter laid out three key objections to Nielsen’s decision to postpone adding out-of-home viewing to its ratings.

The first was that Nielsen’s out-of-home data has been stable, even though out-of-home viewing has been down during the pandemic. “Being ‘down’ cannot preclude it from integration into a single stream currency product . . . we do not see a methodological driver that could justify a ‘postponement,’ nor a need to change methodology.”

The VAB’s second point was that there was a contradiction between Nielsen’s decision not to include out-of-home data in its ratings, but to continue to make that out-of-home data available to the market as a currency on which advertising sales can be transacted. “You can’t have it both ways,” the letter said. “This is the type of demonstrated confusion and uncertainty that can have the effect of significantly eroding confidence in Nielsen as a third-party currency provider.”

The final point said that the decision was “an extremely bad surprise” for the top ad sales execs who make up the VAB board. “‘Blindsiding’ is perhaps the politest way of characterizing how under-communicated and contradictory” the decision was. The VAB noted that all of its members are in weekly conversations with Nielsen about topics including out of home viewing data and were stunned by the announcement.

“While this letter quickly conveys to you the need for Nielsen to REVERSE this morning’s announced ‘postponement’ on behalf of my Board leaders, you will certainly be hearing from them individually--I urge you to listen to your customers and have Nielsen act as a solution-provider in our marketplace and not an impediment,” Cunningham said.

.

ViacomCBS blasted Nielsen's surprise decision to postpone adding out-of-home viewers to its ratings.

The move is a particular blow to networks with sports programming--especially the NFL--including CBS.

Related: VAB Calls on Nielsen to Reverse OOH Delay

“Nielsen’s abrupt delay of the long-planned integration of OOH viewing into the National TV currency less than two months before it was scheduled to be implemented is unacceptable and unjustifiable,” ViacomCBS said in a statement. “ViacomCBS – along with our peers and the VAB – is calling on Nielsen to reverse its decision.”

Related: Nielsen Delays Adding Out-of-Home to Ratings

Nielsen was supposed to integrate out-of-home viewers into its ratings in September. It began telling clients about the delay on Wednesday. 

The ratings company, often an industry punching bag, blamed the COVID-19 pandemic for the problem.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a far reaching effect on the media industry and on consumer viewing habits,” Nielsen said in a statement. 

“In recent days, several states have started to pause their reopening and local governments are considering the reimplementation of stay-at-home orders. With future uncertainty around how the pandemic will further impact out-of-home viewing, Fall 2020 is not the ideal time to integrate this measurement into currency.  While a new implementation date has not been determined, Nielsen is prepared to complete the integration when appropriate and will reassess the situation in Q1 2021”

In the meantime, Nielsen will provide standalone reports on how many people watch shows--and ballgames--in bars, hotels, health clubs and other public spaces. 

Many networks have negotiated to have out-of-home audiences counted in advertising buys. Some clients have bought the larger viewing numbers. 

But as the football season approaches, as well as the resumption of basketball and hockey and the delayed beginning of the baseball season, some deals that had been reached incorporating out-of-home viewing may have to be redone.  

CBS signed up for out-of-home measurement from Nielsen in 2017. At the time, it noted that adding out-of-home viewing boosted ratings for NCAA Men’s basketball Final Four games by 1.1 million viewers or 18.9%.

ESPN and Turner at that point were also getting out-of-home ratings from Nielsen.

In a move that caught some networks by surprise, Nielsen is delaying its plan to include out-of-home viewing in its ratings.

Networks have been pushing to have out-of-home viewing added to traditional ratings to increase audiences, particularly for sports programming.

Related: VAB Calls on Nielsen to Reverse OOH Delay

With sports leagues looking to start up live games, networks have already been selling advertising based on traditional plus out of home viewing. 

The impact is largest with the National Football League, already the highest-rated programming on TV. The NFL is getting ready to open training camps and have its season despite the COVID-19 pandemic.

Related: ViacomCBS Blasts Nielsen Out-of-Home Ratings Delay

The delay, first reported by Sports Business Daily, could force the networks to go back and renegotiate some of those deals. 

According to SBD, Nielsen was calling media companies Wednesday afternoon to tell them that the out-of-home ratings would not be launched in September.

Nielsen said the Coronavirus was responsible for the delay.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has had a far reaching effect on the media industry and on consumer viewing habits,” Nielsen said in a statement. 

“Throughout this crisis, out-of-home audiences have been particularly hard hit, with estimates falling by as much as 60%. This is driven by broad stay-at-home orders, significant reduction in travel, closures of restaurants and public gathering establishments, and other situations that have reduced exposure to television content outside of the home. The recent surge in COVID-19 cases is expected to create further volatility in this space, making it challenging for the industry to plan around this audience segment,” Nielsen said.

“In consideration of the impact the pandemic has had on out-of-home audiences, Nielsen has decided to postpone the integration of PPM measured out-of-home viewing into the National TV currency. Nielsen will continue to offer its existing standalone out-of-home reporting service to subscribing clients, many of whom have used the service to transact on out-of-home audiences since 2017,” Nielsen said. “In recent days, several states have started to pause their reopening and local governments are considering the reimplementation of stay-at-home orders. With future uncertainty around how the pandemic will further impact out-of-home viewing, Fall 2020 is not the ideal time to integrate this measurement into currency. While a new implementation date has not been determined, Nielsen is prepared to complete the integration when appropriate and will reassess the situation in Q1 2021.”

Fox Sports and ESPN were among the first to sign up for Nielsen’s  out-of-home measurement as a special service and try to negotiate with advertisers using larger audience numbers.

Networks were to 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 (PPM) technology and combined with national TV ratings.

At the time, Nielsen said Fox regular season NFL games saw a 16% lift from added out-of-home viewing.

Sources said a significant number of advertisers agreed to include out-of-home viewing in their audience estimates.

Rockbot, a Google backed company that already sells a professional grade music jukebox service to restaurants, bars and other commercial venues, is aiming to disrupt the out-of-home video business.

The Oakland, Calif., company last week debuted a new streaming, multichannel service that offers headend control of multiple TV monitors in multiple venues.

According to Garrett Dodge, CEO of Rockbot, the company has already deployed the service at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The service includes a range of smaller and niche channels. The limited programming selection includes Bloomberg TV, QuickTake by Bloomberg and Top Stories by Newsy for news; Stadium, ACC Digital Network and World Poker Tour for sports; and Outside TV and Fashion TV for Lifestyle.

Dodge said Rockbot is aiming to announce an expanded programming bundle next year. But beyond content, he noted that the service’s real advantage is in execution. Currently, commercial venues use what largely amount to residential pay TV technology to integrate multiscreen video.

“The average sports bar will have 15 individual cable boxes,” Dodge explained, each of them hooked up to an expensive AV cabinet somewhere at the facility. This box will cost, on average, around $50,000 to build, he said. For franchises, it’s an expensive solution offering little centralized control.

“Why are you using a consumer product, spending millions of dollars a year, and relying on a bar tender with a remote control?” Dodge asked. “If you’re going to run content in 10 to 50 locations, you want it to be a reliable and in your control. You don’t want to walk into your restaurant in Peoria and the staff has tuned to the wrong content.”

Out-of-home viewing accounts for 7% to 11% of overall video usage, Dodge said, citing Nielsen data. Usage has grown in the “flat-screen” era, whereby TVs have become flat enough, light enough—and above all, cheap enough—to be amply festooned all over venue walls. Back in the days of CRT televisions, which were considerably bulkier and heavier, this simply wasn’t feasible.

“Now you can get a 42-inch TV for 200 bucks and plaster it all over your walls,” Dodge said.

Rockbot is backed by Google Ventures and Universal Music Group. Dodge added that the company expects to grow its market share in video as linear pay TV operators retreat.

Comcast, he noted, had more than 1 million subscribers in the out-of-home market in 2017. “But that base has been rapidly declining, just as we’ve seen in the cord-cutting world.”

Rockbot, a Google backed company that already sells a professional grade music jukebox service to restaurants, bars and other commercial venues, is aiming to disrupt the out-of-home video business. 

The Oakland, Calif., company last week debuted a new streaming, multichannel service that offers headend control of multiple TV monitors in multiple venues. 

According to Garrett Dodge, CEO of Rockbot, the company has already deployed the service at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. The service includes a range of smaller and niche channels. The limited programming selection includes Bloomberg TV, QuickTake by Bloomberg and Top Stories by Newsy for news; Stadium, ACC Digital Network and World Poker Tour for sports; and Outside TV and Fashion TV for Lifestyle.

Dodge said Rockbot is aiming to announce an expanded programming bundle next year. But beyond content, he noted that the service’s real advantage is in execution. Currently, commercial venues use what largely amount to residential pay TV technology to integrate multiscreen video. 

“The average sports bar will have 15 individual cable boxes,” Dodge explained, each of them hooked up to an expensive AV cabinet somewhere at the facility. This box will cost, on average, around $50,000 to build, he said. For franchises, it’s an expensive solution offering little centralized control. 

“Why are you using a consumer product, spending millions of dollars a year, and relying on a bar tender with a remote control?” Dodge asked. “If you’re going to run content in 10 to 50 locations, you want it to be a reliable and in your control. You don’t want to walk into your restaurant in Peoria and the staff has tuned to the wrong content.”

Out-of-home viewing accounts for 7% to 11% of overall video usage, Dodge said, citing Nielsen data. Usage has grown in the “flat-screen” era, whereby TVs have become flat enough, light enough—and above all, cheap enough—to be amply festooned all over venue walls. Back in the days of CRT televisions, which were considerably bulkier and heavier, this simply wasn’t feasible. 

“Now you can get a 42-inch TV for 200 bucks and plaster it all over your walls,” Dodge said. 

Rockbot is backed by Google Ventures and Universal Music Group. Dodge added that the company expects to grow its market share in video as linear pay TV operators retreat. 

Comcast, he noted, had more than 1 million subscribers in the out-of-home market in 2017. “But that base has been rapidly declining, just as we’ve seen in the cord-cutting world.”

While networks fret that they’ve been abandoned by younger viewers, Nielsen said they’re watching linear TV content, but they’re not sitting in the living room while they're watching.

It’s true that younger viewers are among the most active video streamers, but the relatively affluent members of the millennial generation and Generation Z are also watching linear TV content in out-of-home locations, according to a new Nielsen report.

With Nielsen measuring out of home viewing more thoroughly, and more ad buyers accepting out-of-home viewing among the impressions they pay for, the finding could mean extra dollars for TV networks.

Related: Nielsen Offers Quicker Data on Out-of-Home Viewing

ESPN was one of the first networks to subscribe to Nielsen’s Out-of-Home reporting service and use those extra viewers in negotiations with advertisers. Adding viewing in bars, health clubs, offices and mass transit lifts ESPN’s viewership by 8.5%, the network said.

Turner and CBS have also signed up for Nielsen’s Out-of-Home service.

Related: ESPN Touts Effectiveness of Commercials Seen Out of Home

In its new report, Nielsen looked at all out-of-home viewing during 2017. It found that 39% of all out-of home-viewing came from Gen Z and millennials, or 14% more than their national in-home viewing.

News viewing is usually thought to be largely confined to older viewers, but when looking at out-of-home consumption, the share represented by millennials and Gen Zers nearly tripled. Gen X’s share was also higher out-of-home (23%) than in-home (18%).

Nearly half of the out-of-home viewing for sports came from Gen Z and millennials.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Fox Sports has signed up for Nielsen’s National Out-of-Home reporting service, which counts people watching ballgames on TV in bars, hotels and other locations.

The ratings lift a game can get by adding out-of-home viewers can be significant. Nielsen said Fox NFL regular-season games saw a 16% lift from out-of-home viewing last season.

Fox, ESPN and some other TV companies are negotiating to add out-of-home viewers to the eyeballs they sell to advertisers in the current upfront market. ESPN was the first to subscribe to the Nielsen out-out-of-home reporting service when it launched in April.

Related: Nielsen Launches Out-of-Home TV Ratings Service

The multi-year agreement covers Fox Sports on broadcast, FS1, FS2 and Fox Deportes with program and commercial ratings ranging from live to live plus 7 days of delayed 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, Fox Sports.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.