Streamers Take Measure of Nielsen's Integration of First-Party Data
In November, the Media Rating Council approved Nielsen’s integration of first-party live streaming data into its national panel-based TV measurement, an approach first deployed with Amazon’s Thursday Night Football with the promise of “persons-level granularity” for live stream ratings. As it moves beyond Amazon, how will the rest of the streaming world and its advertisers react? Warner Bros. Discovery’s Dan Trotta, Vevo’s Natasha Potashnik, and Revry’s Damian Pelliccione share their thoughts with Advertiser Perceptions’ Erin Firneno in this timely clip from Streaming Media Connect 2024.
Why first-party data integration into ratings underscores the NFL’s influence
Trotta says that it is his understanding that the first use cases of first-party data integration into ratings are for the NFL games now being shown on Amazon and Netflix, even though platforms may be hesitant to release highly accurate first-party data to advertisers if there is a risk of bad numbers dissuading advertisers. But in this case, he says, “It shows the strength of the NFL. They don't want to air a game without getting those ratings back. It keeps them in the driver's seat. They get to say to Netflix, ‘Hey, we're doing 15 million viewers on the night of the game.’” He notes that while this may help Nielsen stay relevant, its impact on their business remains uncertain.
Reasons why advertisers are likely to welcome the additional insights
Firneno wonders if there will be any pushback on first-party data from advertisers or if they will ultimately welcome the additional insights.
Potashnik says, “I think from an advertiser perspective, once the cat is out of the bag, I don't know that you can put it back in. This is real data from the publishers, and yes, there may be some methodological [issues]. Are we de-duplicating across all these users? But at the end of the day, if you compare that to panel data, I'm sure as an advertiser, you want to know whatever is more accurate [and most] reflective of the true reach. I think it's going to be hard to make the argument that, no, we shouldn't take first-party data into account…because people know panels are flawed. People know that that has issues. So, to me, it's a little bit inevitable, and yes, it may favor certain publishers initially, but I can imagine there will be demand for it on the buyer side.”
The view from more niche platforms
Pelliccione says the new inclusion of first-party data in ratings measurement is not equally important to smaller platforms with more niche/specialized audiences, such as Revry’s. “I don’t have Breaking Bad or major NFL shows on Revry,” he says. “The way that we're measuring the success of certain shows and campaigns is just the impressions served. Let's look at the macro level. How many people have just watched it, and how long have they watched it? We haven't opted into [Nielsen’s first-party data offering] in any way because it's not going to move the needle for us toward any buys. It's more the brand lift, the studies, the intent, the contextual, and the targeting.”
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