Further upping the ante in the race to measure TV audiences, Nielsen has announced a partnership with Adobe to create a new cross-platform tool for tallying online TV and other digital content, slated for release in 2015.
Nielsen has enjoyed near-monopoly control of TV audience measurement for decades. But the company has struggled to keep up with the audiences of linear broadcasters as viewers have migrated across platforms. It's also facing insurgent competition from rival research company Rentrak, which is moving quickly to grab market share with a measurement system based on set-tops.
Nielsen says media companies and advertisers will be able to use the new "Nielsen Digital Content Ratings, Powered by Adobe" starting in 2015 to measure usage across "every major IP device, including desktops, smartphones, tablets, game consoles and over-the-top boxes."
The research company says ESPN is on board, as well as Turner Broadcasting, Univision and Viacom. Advertising agency Starcom MediaVest Group is also signed on.
"This alliance is expected to accelerate the adoption of consistent and comprehensive measurement in digital," said Megan Clarken, executive VP, global product leadership, at Nielsen. "By integrating our technologies, together we'll be able to offer our customers a more seamless and efficient way to plan and deliver against their audiences."
For more:
- read this Nielsen press release
- read this Variety story
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