For both Nielsen and Roku, it’s better to be late to the party than to not show up at all.
Last week, the companies announced a partnership that will enable Nielsen to begin to measure video advertising across Roku players and TVs. For Roku, the partnership is part of a new ‘Audience Solutions’ initiative, en effort to makes it platform even more attractive to publishers and advertisers. For Nielsen, it is a much-needed step in the right direction as the company tries to break free from being viewed as outdated within the increasingly OTT and unbundled landscape.
“Cross-platform audience measurement is critical for advertisers looking to leverage the trend of increasing over-the-top video consumption,” said Megan Clarken, EVP of Global Watch Product Leadership at Nielsen. “By working with Roku to measure live streaming and on-demand advertising on its platform, we can gain great insights into OTT viewing and expand the measurement and delivery of Total Audience Campaign and Content insights for all of our clients.”
Measurement will be based on Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings, and publishers who opt in will be able to measure their Roku audience via Nielsen demographics and have access to Nielsen’s full suite of reporting and analytics tools. According to Roku, approximately half of its 250 most-watched channels are already delivering ad-supported content.