Nielsen said YouTube's streaming TV inventory will now be measured in its Digital Ad Ratings and Total Ad Ratings to verify audiences on connected TVs.
The company said the first phase of measurement will be enabled in the first half of 2021, beginning with YouTube TV and extending to the YouTube app on connected TVs in the U.S. shortly thereafter, ahead of the 2021-2022 Upfronts.
According to Nielsen's recent Beyond Streaming report, YouTube accounted for 20% of all streaming usage in the U.S.
"Over 100 million people in the U.S. watch YouTube and YouTube TV on their connected TVs every month. Advertisers are asking for third-party measurement partners like Nielsen to provide a complete view of YouTube and YouTube TV audiences, so they can understand the scale of the audience they're able to reach through CTV campaigns," said Debbie Weinstein, vice president of global solutions at YouTube, in a statement.
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"As streaming through connected devices surges, measuring the audience is critical as the industry demands a currency grade solution that provides marketers and publishers holistic, cross-platform metrics about advanced TV campaigns," said Scott Brown, general manager of audience measurement at Nielsen, in a statement. "Because connected TV is addressable by nature, expanding our relationship with Google to measure YouTube audiences on connected devices is an important step to deliver cross media ad measurement and comparability between CTV and addressable on linear TV."
Earlier this year, Google announced a new advertising program that will help marketers target viewers watching YouTube or YouTube TV on TV screens.
YouTube Select will grow the amount of available upfront ad inventory on YouTube by bringing new channels – focused on categories including beauty, entertainment, technology and sports – into the Google Preferred program.
According to Ad Exchanger, YouTube will make it easier purchase ads on YouTube TV and YouTube on TV screens through “Streaming Lineups,” which can be bought in the upfront or programmatically instead of through Google Ads.