Nielsen Launches National Out-Of-Home Reporting Service

Nielsen's previously announced national out-of-home reporting service has begun -- with ESPN and ESPN2 as its first networks.

ESPN and other television networks that subscribe will receive live program and commercial ratings through seven days of time-shifted viewing.

The service will combine Nielsen Portable People Meter (PPM) technology to measure OOH viewing and its national TV ratings panel. Nielsen says the service will be “providing clients with actionable data that quantifies the incremental audience that out-of-home viewing delivers.”

Nielsen originally announced the effort back in October 2016.

The national out-of-home service with Nielsen’s PPM technology will measure TV viewing in bars, restaurants, hotels, gyms and second TV homes -- deployed in nearly 77,000 panelists. Data comes from 44 local TV markets, enabling a Nielsen estimate for what people watch outside of the home across 65% of the TV U.S. household population.

ESPN says it originally worked with Nielsen on out-of-home measurement 20 years ago.

Artie Bulgrin, SVP, global research/analytics, ESPN, previously stated: “ESPN is viewed virtually anywhere there is a screen -- from sports bars to gyms, hotels and the workplace... [it] helps us double down on the power and delivery of live sports, while transacting on new, valuable audience segments for advertisers.”

 

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6 comments about "Nielsen Launches National Out-Of-Home Reporting Service ".
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  1. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, April 11, 2017 at 12:23 p.m.

    Wayne, why do you---and others---keep saying that the PPMs measure "viewing"? They don't. All they measure is whether a device is on and tuned to a particular bit of content---- period. We have no out-of-home viewing survey.

  2. Kevin Killion from Stone House Systems, Inc., April 11, 2017 at 2:02 p.m.

    It isn't clear from this whether the PPM devices to be used are for people already in the television panel, or from a separate group.  Obviously, it would be preferable to have a single group to allow reach and accumulations measures.


    Ed Papazian -- are you saying that the PPM isn't really viewing because what it reports is more like an "opportunity to see" than eyes-on, or are you saying it's a deeper issue than that?

  3. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, April 11, 2017 at 4:46 p.m.

    Kevin, yes, I'm saying exactly that. Many years ago, I raised the issue of validating the core assumption in the passive PPM system, namely that whenever it picked up an embedded audio signal from a radio or TV station that this automatically classified the person wearing or carrying the PPM as "reached". The folks at Arbitron wouldn't hear of a validation study on the grounds that Nielsen's TV ratings also were not validated and the agencies didn't seem to care as long as they got radio data via electronic means.

    Here we are, years later, and now, the PPMs are being used by Nielsen to "measure" OOH TV viewing down to the commercial minute  level. Imagine the situation in a hotel room at 7AM. The PPM is sitting on a table with the TV set on and tuned into the "Today Show", but the panel member is in the bathroom taking a shower or doing something else---all the while being counted as an every second "viewer", including the commercials. Now, consider the situation at a bar much later that day---say at 10PM.This time the panel member is wearing the PPM and the bar has its set on, tuned to a NFL game carried by ESPN. The panel member---a venturesome male is busy flirting with an attractive female at the bustling bar, where lots of people are coming and going, talking, drinking and---sometimes--- watching the TV screen. According to the PPM, the PPM panel member is "watching" every second of ESPN's content, including the commercials----but is this really so?

    There are plenty of ways to validate the assumption that tuning equals viewing---like a program content and commercial recall test compared against what the PPMs said was seen--- but not surprisingly, the ad sellers aren't falling over themselves trying to undermine their totally understandable intent to monetize OOH "audiences". And the agencies are, again, very silent about this---after all some data is better than none---right?

  4. John Grono from GAP Research, April 12, 2017 at 1:40 a.m.

    The PPM actually measures 'listening'.   Well ... whether the device can 'hear' a watermarked or audio-matched source (TV, radio etc.).   It is closer to 'tuning' than 'viewing'.

    In my work with portable measurement devices I have found the biggest issue to be 'carry rate'.   People have busy lives and do not always comply (carry or wear) the device.   Our tests show that (surprisingly) smartphone apps have an even poorer track record.   The issue is that once you forget to wear/carry/log-in etc. the missing data is lost forever and there is no way to 'back-fill' the data, or in the case Ed outlined remove the invalid data.   You end up understating the true behaviour.

  5. Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, April 12, 2017 at 1:01 p.m.

    John, I recall seeing some research by Arbitron---some time ago---that indicated that most of the time when the PPMs were not worn or carried, was late in the evenings--around bedtime-- or early in the mornings when the panelist was getting groomed or dressed for the day. While this might depress "viewing" rates somewhat, it's effects would not be very great. Also,  I have asked, but never received an adequate response to my questions regarding how representative the PPM panels are, in the light of thier very low recruitment rates. This, too, is a factor as it is likely that light TV/radio users are probably under-represented in such panels as well as certain demos. Any info on these subjects "down under"?

  6. John Grono from GAP Research replied, April 12, 2017 at 9:21 p.m.

    Ed, I've taken my reply off-line as I unwittingly crashed into MediPost's word limit.   Check your in-box and let me know if it didn't work.

    Joe - an idea.   You have no idea when you hit the limit until you try to submit.   Maybe you could add a tracker in the grey space above to alert people, before it all crashes.

    Cheers.

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