Hulu and YouTube TV will now be a part of Nielsen's Digital in TV Ratings and will contribute to C3/C7 currency.
Digital viewing of eligible live, DVR and on-demand TV on Hulu's live service and YouTube TV will be combined with traditional linear audience metrics, allowing Nielsen to provide broader audience coverage.
"The inclusion of eligible TV viewership from Hulu and YouTube TV viewership in C3 and C7 through Digital in TV Ratings is a major accomplishment in delivering Nielsen Total Audience to the marketplace," said Megan Clarken, president of product leadership at Nielsen, in a statement. "We are proud to be able to deliver this solution to our clients as part of our commitment to provide trusted, independent measurement of the evolving modern media landscape."
Launched in 2015, Nielsen's Digital in TV Ratings was launched in 2015 and provides viewership metrics across desktop and mobile devices as long as the program content and commercials match the linear TV airing.
"We built YouTube TV to bring the most popular 'must watch' TV to today's video streaming audiences and we're already seeing that live TV represents the majority of time spent watching on the service. Our network and advertising partners will benefit from Nielsen DTVR measurement of YouTube TV," said Heather Moosnick, director of content partnerships for YouTube TV, in a statement.
"This move represents an important step forward toward complete cross-platform measurement, and we are encouraged by Nielsen's efforts to capture viewing across the shifting media ecosystem—particularly among the growing number of partnerships between programmers and digital distributors," said Wanda Young, senior vice president of marketing and consumer engagement at ESPN, in a statement.
RELATED: Nielsen changing Total Audience Measurement product after pressure from NBCU, Fox
Nielsen’s addition to Hulu and YouTube TV to its TV ratings comes after the company’s Total Audience product made changes amid criticism from programmers.
Last year, Linda Yaccarino, chairman of advertising sales at NBCUniversal, expressed “deep concerns” over what she called an “incomplete and inconsistent” Total Content Ratings product. She pointed toward the product’s limited involvement from pay TV operators and incomplete OTT measurement, which currently excludes services like Hulu, which is part-owned by NBC.