
Nielsen is First Accredited National TV Audience Measurement Provider for Big Data Panel
Nielsen Endorses Big Data Panel as Currency Heading into 2025 Upfront
Industry-Supported Big Data Panel Measurement Improves Every Part of the Media Buying and Selling Process
New York January 22, 2025 The Media Rating Council (MRC) has completed its accreditation process covering Nielsen's innovative Big Data Panel National TV measurement, after recently accrediting Nielsen's integration of first-party live streaming data and re-accrediting Nielsen's traditional Panel measurement. Nielsen is the first accredited national TV audience measurement provider for Big Data Panel.
The accreditation of Nielsen's Big Data Panel is a landmark moment for TV ratings, as it will forever change audience measurement, said Karthik Rao, Nielsen CEO. No one else pairs a high quality, representative panel with a data set this large, pulling from smart TVs and set top boxes in more than 45 million homes. I believe Big Data Panel gives the industry the most accurate measurement in the history of TV. We're grateful to our clients for helping us innovate once again.
MRC has completed and evaluated rigorous audits of Nielsen's National Service and its new components, including first party streaming (thus far consisting of select NFL games) and the integration of big data, said George Ivie, CEO and Executive Director of the MRC. We have now approved the integration of big data so this combined methodology can be considered MRC accredited; we appreciate Nielsen's inclusion of this in the MRC accreditation process. George added, this effort marks the first time MRC has accredited a hybrid panel/big-data product inclusive of persons level estimates. George Ivie, Media Rating Council.
The NFL continues to support Nielsen's efforts to modernize measurement so we can all benefit from accurate insights in an increasingly fragmented media marketplace, said Paul Ballew, Chief Data & Analytic Officer of the NFL. The accreditation of their Big Data solution is a significant step in the journey and we commend Nielsen for their efforts.
Big Data Panel National TV Measurement combines Nielsen's unique, high-quality representative panel measurement with data from cable, satellite set-top boxes and smart TVs across 45 million households and 75 million devices. Big Data Panel fuels planning and measurement in the Nielsen ecosystem and partners' systems, enabling cross-platform advanced audiences at scale. This measurement innovation can be utilized to support the media industry beyond advertising planning and buying, by helping to inform content programming and licensing decisions, along with carriage fees for TV distribution deals. Big Data Panel was widely adopted by many broadcasters and agencies for the 2024 Upfront season and Nielsen is endorsing its use as currency heading into the 2025 Upfront.
This continues Nielsen's track record of innovation and modernization, reinforcing its leadership position in audience measurement. In addition to bringing Big Data Panel measurement to the market, Nielsen has expanded National TV out-of-home measurement, which is also being submitted to MRC for evaluation and is in process. Nielsen is also the industry leader in streaming measurement with widely adopted products like Streaming Content Ratings (which feeds in Nielsen's Streaming Top 10) and Streaming Platform Ratings (which provides the streaming data behind The Gauge and Media Distributor Gauge).
For advertisers and agencies, Nielsen has recently expanded Nielsen ONE to include outcomes capabilities in addition to advanced audiences, planning and measurement. Nielsen continues to deliver deduplicated cross media solutions backed by gold standard data and accredited methodologies. Nielsen ONE is not submitted to MRC for auditing/evaluation at present but is planned for this in the future.
About Big Data Panel In the TV measurement space, big data refers to return-path data (RPD) from cable and satellite set-top boxes, as well as automatic content recognition (ACR) data from internet-connected smart TVs. Nielsen partners with companies like Comcast, DirecTV, Dish Network, Roku and Vizio, providing access to granular data from 45 million households (and 75 million devices) in the U.S. alone. Nielsen is also incorporating first-party data from participating streaming services to help measure audiences for live streaming events. These are massive datasets that capture TV viewing at the device level.
Nielsen uniquely goes farther than device-level data, verifying at the persons-level with panel data. For instance, when Nielsen analyzes RPD or ACR data, the company can identify what devices are part of its panels and compare the tuning data in those homes to the individual viewing behavior captured by Nielsen meters. By using panels as a source of truth, Nielsen developed robust methods to calibrate big data, assign viewing to the right individuals, and project audience estimates to the entire TV population, not just those in the big data dataset. For more on Big Data Panel, watch this video.
About Nielsen Nielsen is a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics. Through our understanding of people and their behaviors across all channels and platforms, we empower our clients with independent and actionable intelligence so they can connect and engage with their global audiences-now and into the future.
For advertisers, agencies, and publishers, Nielsen has recently expanded Nielsen ONE to include outcomes capabilities, in addition to advanced audiences, planning and measurement. Nielsen's measurement is powered by person-level data from panels of over 1.2 million individuals and backed by the scale of the industry's lar
More from Nielsen
16/09/2025
College Football Scores Top Telecast in August with 16M+ Viewers on FOX, Followe...
16/09/2025
Collaboration marks the first SSP integration of Gracenote IDs, enabling show-le...
11/09/2025
Warsaw, Poland, 20.08.25: Nielsen, the global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, has released its latest July All Screens Video Landscape repor...
11/09/2025
Warner Bros. Discovery to add key Big Data and Advanced Audience capabilities fr...
09/09/2025
Streaming drives 55.8% of total TV time for Hispanic viewers,
outpacing 46% fo...
03/09/2025
New Gracenote Video MCP Server brings veracity and relevance to large language model-driven content discovery
NEW YORK - September 3, 2025 - Gracenote, the con...
02/09/2025
Big Data Panel Provides More Accurate Measurement
Data Than Ever Before
New...
27/08/2025
News and horror genres are biggest drivers of FAST expansion according to Gracen...
26/08/2025
YouTube Captures 13.4% of TV Viewing in Sixth Consecutive Month as the Top Media...
20/08/2025
Auckland, New Zealand - 19 August 2025: Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data, and analytics, is pleased to announce a two-year extension for T...
20/08/2025
July, much like June, is a month marked by summer weather and vacations, which has reflected in a further decline in viewer activity in front of TV screens. The...
20/08/2025
During July, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico showed an increase of 0.9 percentage points compared to the previous month, accounting for 24.6% of T...
20/08/2025
Netflix, YouTube and The Roku Channel Each Hit Platform Highs
Netflix Owns 8 of...
20/08/2025
New collaboration brings granular audience insights from NMC so advertisers, agencies, and publishers can gain a better understanding of their audience
Now ava...
13/08/2025
Sydney - August 13, 2025 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data, and analytics, today announced the upcoming launch of Connected TV (CTV) insi...
06/08/2025
Nielsen ONE planning unifies data, empowering both buy and sell sides to reach a...
06/08/2025
New advanced audience integration provides interoperability, helps brands reach their audiences.
NEW YORK - August 5, 2025 - Nielsen, a global leader in audien...
06/08/2025
Auckland - August 6, 2025 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement and...
06/08/2025
NPR and Ocean Media Among Charter Subscribers
For the First Time Advertisers Ca...
01/08/2025
New open ecosystem in Nielsen ONE provides more holistic view
of an ad's o...
29/07/2025
Streaming Holds Steady in a Lighter Summer Viewership Season
NEW YORK - July 29...
23/07/2025
Netflix Posts Largest Monthly Increase Among Media Companies - Climbs to Largest...
22/07/2025
During June, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico showed a slight increase of 0.2 percentage points compared to the previous month, accounting for 23.7...
22/07/2025
Sydney - July 17, 2025 - Australia's leading financial brands have significantly increased their advertising investment, showing 16% year-on-year growth, ac...
21/07/2025
June, the first month of summer and the start of a vacation season, brought an expected decrease in viewer activity in front of TV screens. The latest data indi...
17/07/2025
NEW YORK - July 17, 2025 - Gracenote, the content data business unit of Nielsen, has announced the appointment of Ryan Moore to the new role of Chief Business O...
16/07/2025
Warsaw - Poland, June 24, 2025 - Nielsen, the global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, has released its latest May All Screens Video Landscape...
16/07/2025
Bluey Tops Nielsen's Overall Streaming List with More Than 25 Billion Minutes Streamed from January through June 2025
Big June Vaults Squid Game into Top O...
15/07/2025
Netflix Viewing Up 13.5% vs. May, Represents 42% of Monthly Gain for Streaming
...
14/07/2025
UK launch set for September, following on from recent US and Germany releases
London - UK, July 14, 2025 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, da...
10/07/2025
NEW YORK - July 10, 2025 - Nielsen, the global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, today announced that it appointed Richard Pacheco as head of ...
09/07/2025
Collaboration will result in improved data quality and understanding of genre-le...
25/06/2025
YouTube Extends Lead and Tops All Media Distributors for Fourth Consecutive Mont...
25/06/2025
Copenhagen, Denmark - June 25, 2025 - Nielsen, a global leader in audience measu...
24/06/2025
Initial enhancement comes in Germany, before roll out in further EMEA markets
LONDON, UK June 23, 2025 Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, da...
19/06/2025
May 2025 was a month packed with events that captivated viewers, from the presidential campaign in Poland to the international Eurovision Song Contest. It's...
19/06/2025
During May, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico showed a slight decrease of 0.8 percentage points compared to the previous month, accounting for 23.5%...
17/06/2025
Streaming Notches a Record 44.8% of Total TV Usage in May
Streaming Usage Up 71...
12/06/2025
Over a third of global football fans find brand sponsorship appealing and 41% of all sports sponsorships are in that sport.
The FIFA World Cup 2026TM will open...
05/06/2025
Show-level visibility and granular contextual targeting enabled by Gracenote gives brands more confidence in CTV buys
NEW YORK June 5, 2025 Gracenote, the...
04/06/2025
Viewership figures once again show appeal of important live sporting events
Mil...
03/06/2025
Nielsen and VIZIO's Inscape are extending their strategic data relationship, building on our collaboration that began in 2022. This multi-year agreement rei...
29/05/2025
Renewal Spans all 18 Local Fox Markets and Includes Streaming Measurement of Loc...
29/05/2025
Leading streamers expanded TV, movie and sports titles by 5% in Q2; Netflix led ...
27/05/2025
Mumbai, India
Brazil
Guadalajara, Mexico
Philippines
Poland
Throughout the month of April, Nielsen employees celebrated Global Volunteer Month with volunte...
27/05/2025
Paramount Exhibits Largest Monthly Increase in April's Media Distributor Gau...
22/05/2025
Sports fans can now seamlessly go between platforms and content types to follow favorite sports teams, live games and related content with Gracenote Nexus Auto
...
21/05/2025
The seventh annual report uncovers how marketers are adapting to market trends a...
21/05/2025
During April, streaming's share of TV viewing in Mexico showed a slight decrease of 0.1 percentage points compared to the previous month, accounting for 24....