MRC Approves Nielsen's Integration of Streaming Data

In the USA, the Media Rating Council has approved the integration of first-party live streaming data into Nielsen's accredited National Television service, and has renewed accreditation for the company's National Panel measurement.

Nielsen says the MRC's 'vote of confidence' in its strengthens its streaming measurement going forward and makes it 'the first accredited live-streaming solution with persons-level granularity'. The company publishes Streaming Content Ratings and Streaming Platform Ratings, the latter providing the data for its published reports The Gauge and Media Distributor Gauge.

While it's ten years ago this month that Nielsen first announced it would report viewing stats for Netflix - leading to a dispute between the two companies over their accuracy - the last five years have seen it seal deals with the major SVOD services including Amazon Prime, and for the last two it has been reporting Netflix and other streaming audience figures for the US in a manner comparable to broadcast and other TV channels, in addition to striking international deals.

Nielsen CEO Karthik Rao (pictured) says the latest development 'will give the industry a true view of linear and streaming viewing like never before', calling the announcement 'a great affirmation of Nielsen's ability to innovate at the speed of the market, while doing so in a safe and verified way'. He adds: 'With time-tested methodologies like our accredited persons panel and precise new solutions for the streaming era, we believe Nielsen is right where the industry needs us to be - at the convergence of all the ways people watch content'.

MRC CEO and Executive Director George Ivie comments: 'We congratulate Nielsen on the renewal of accreditation of its National Television Panel Measurement and on receiving approval to integrate its first-party streaming data into the panel measurement. This was a significant effort and we appreciate Nielsen's ongoing commitment to the MRC accreditation process'.

Web sites: www.mediaratingcouncil.org and www.nielsen.com .