Nielsen Doubles Down on Streaming, Adds Viewership by Platform and Advanced Audience Demographics

Today, Nielsen announced the launch of Nielsen Streaming Video Ratings, a syndicated service reported via Nielsen’s premier audience insights platform, NPOWER, that provides unique visibility into total viewership and advanced audience demographic insights by streaming platform alongside linear TV ratings. Armed with this holistic view of total TV time, media buyers can make more informed decisions about their advertising investments while sellers can better assess competition and understand audience composition to better monetize their premium content.  

As viewing consumption continues to shift across linear and streaming services, it is business critical to have full visibility into viewership trends across linear TV, video on demand (VOD), subscription and ad-supported streaming services and audience demographic information such as race/ethnicity, household income, device types inside the home and location. Nielsen Streaming Video Ratings will allow content creators, studios, platforms and advertisers to know which demos are engaging with the content, where content opportunities may be, which platforms are gaining momentum (and why) and which categories are driving the most engagement. 

Nielsen estimates that among homes that can stream the share has gone from 18% to 25% in only a year’s time—a seven percentage point increase in a behavior that continues to see audience adoption and increased use. This type of audience shift is even more acute when looking at certain age and ethnic demographics, crucial insights for the entire media ecosystem to understand when creating, licensing, marketing and even casting talent of content.

Nielsen Streaming Video Ratings will deliver insights into how much streaming behavior is happening on the TV screen, how the various streaming providers compare, what devices are being used to stream and how different audience groups stream.  

For example, according to Nielsen Streaming Video Ratings among homes that are streaming capable, Netflix now accounts for about 7% of total time to the TV. What’s more, one-third of streaming capable homes access between three and four SVOD services per month, but nearly half of homes also use an ad-supported VOD (AVOD) service as well. Beyond SVOD and AVOD, linear streaming, such as vMPVD apps, has also emerged as a popular and viable consumer content option according to insights uncovered via Nielsen’s SVR service.

 “By 2024, it’s estimated that streaming platforms will have amassed 210 million subscribers, which represents a staggering number of consumers and a major shift in media habits,” said Kevin Rini, SVP Product Management, Nielsen. “Now more than ever, it’s important for our clients to have a clear understanding of the streaming landscape, both from a program or content perspective, which our SVOD service does, as well as at a macro view of audience consumption that takes into account the total use of streaming platforms comparable to linear TV. Nielsen Streaming Video Ratings does just that—rounding out our suite of streaming solutions and providing a  comprehensive view of streaming consumption and advanced audience demographics. It will help any business buying, selling or investing in media to have the clear picture of the impact of these consumer shifts.”

At launch, Nielsen Streaming Video Ratings will include viewership details from 10 top streaming platforms as well as seven categories of apps including subscription-based, ad-supported, network, social, gaming as well as multichannel video programming distributors (MVPD) and virtual MVPD apps. 

Combined with Nielsen Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) Content Ratings, Nielsen now provides a comprehensive view of the streaming landscape for advertisers, networks, studios, digital publishers and financial investors. Nielsen Streaming Video Ratings provides a total view of streaming activity across major subscription and ad-supported streaming services while Nielsen SVOD Content Ratings delivers a more granular view of program and episode level measurement.