ABC Network subscribes to Nielsen National Out-of-Home Measurement

NEW YORK — Disney|ABC Television Group’s ABC Network, has subscribed to Nielsen’s (NYSE: NLSN) National Out-of-Home Reporting Service. This agreement provides ABC with out-of-home viewing data, including ratings for all content—programs and commercials—aired on the network for live plus seven days of time-shifted viewing. Earlier this year, ESPN and ESPN2, also Disney-owned, became the first two networks across broadcast and cable to sign up for this opt-in syndicated service.

“We’re pleased to see that Nielsen has built the capability to measure viewing of ABC’s content away from home, whether consumers are enjoying our rich programming alone or with family and friends,” said Cindy Davis, Executive Vice President, Consumer Experience, Disney|ABC Television Group. “We’re looking forward to engaging our clients with a true reflection of viewership across all screens.”

Nielsen is the only measurement company that allows subscribers to see their combined in-home and out-of-home viewing. The data from Nielsen’s National TV Ratings panel and the viewing away from the home captured by the Portable People Meter (PPM) offers clients a more holistic picture of their audiences. The incremental viewing that is derived from out-of-home tuning helps networks like ABC better strategize during the media planning and buying process and make more precise audience guarantees.

This opt-in service is the only electronic and syndicated solution that measures both in-home and out-of-home audiences. ABC and subscribing networks receive weekly reports that include audience estimates for program and commercial content. The national out-of-home reporting service and the ability it provides networks to transact based on this previously unmeasured audience is a key part of Nielsen’s Total Audience framework. It offers clients consistent and comparable metrics of content and ads across the entire media ecosystem.

“We are excited to have ABC join the growing list of television clients who have decided to incorporate Nielsen’s national out-of-home reporting into their business in order to benefit from the incremental audience lift that they will receive,” said Peter Bradbury, Managing Director, Nielsen National Client Solutions. “As viewing continues to fragment across screens and devices, Nielsen is working diligently to ensure we can offer the most comprehensive view of media consumption possible. Nielsen’s National Out-of-Home Reporting Service is a key component of our measurement evolution and our plans to provide clients with flexible and powerful products that measure audiences regardless of where content is viewed.”

The service uses Nielsen’s PPM technology from nearly 77,000 installed panelists. The PPM’s portability and low-maintenance by the panelist enables Nielsen to measure TV viewing occurring away from the home and in places such as hotels, gyms, bars, second-homes and the workplace. The syndicated service uses a fusion methodology to combine the PPM footprint across 44 local TV markets with Nielsen’s national representative panel, enabling Nielsen to represent 65% of the TV U.S. household population to project what people are watching outside of their homes.