• by Wayne Friedman , November 10, 2020

Nielsen is adding 55 million devices across smart TV and set-top boxes to the addressable measurement of its national TV currency.

This will include measurement from AT&T's DirecTV, Dish Network, and Vizio smart TV sets.

The measurement will include addressable campaigns on Vizio devices using the open addressable standard developed by Project OAR (Open Addressable Ready).

Inserting addressable ads into live, linear TV programming allows advertisers to target specific audiences.

Nielsen, quoting eMarketer, estimates that addressable TV advertising will reach $3.6 billion by 2022 — up 75% from August 2020. The entire TV advertising marketplace totals roughly $70 billion a year.

Nielsen plans to release preview data in the first half of 2021.

Nielsen Total Audience Report says 77% of U.S. homes have at least one enabled connected device, with streaming accounting for 25% of TV usage in those homes.

The industry addressable advertising consortium, Project OAR -- which recently added ViacomCBS and E.W. Scripps -- started in February 2018, led by Vizio, which has a footprint of 13 million smart TVs.

Founding members include Disney's Media Networks, Comcast's FreeWheel and NBCUniversal, Xandr, WarnerMedia, Discovery, Hearst Television, AMC Networks, Vizio, and its smart TV data unit Inscape.