ABC Network Subscribes to Nielsen OOH

Disney|ABC Television Group’s ABC Network, has subscribed to Nielsen’s national out-of-home reporting service. This agreement provides ABC with out-of-home viewing data, including ratings for all content — programs and commercials — aired on the network for live plus seven days of time-shifted viewing. Earlier this year, ESPN and ESPN2, also Disney-owned, became the first two networks across broadcast and cable to sign up for this opt-in syndicated service.

“We’re pleased to see that Nielsen has built the capability to measure viewing of ABC’s content away from home, whether consumers are enjoying our rich programming alone or with family and friends,” said Cindy Davis, EVP, consumer experience, Disney|ABC Television Group. “We’re looking forward to engaging our clients with a true reflection of viewership across all screens.”

Nielsen allows subscribers to see their in-home and out-of-home viewing by combining data from Nielsen’s National TV Ratings panel and the viewing away from the home captured by the Portable People Meter.

This opt-in service is the only electronic and syndicated solution that measures both in-home and out-of-home audiences, according to Nielsen. ABC and subscribing networks receive weekly reports that include audience estimates for program and commercial content.

“We are excited to have ABC join the growing list of television clients who have decided to incorporate Nielsen’s national out-of-home reporting into their business in order to benefit from the incremental audience lift that they will receive,” said Peter Bradbury, managing director, Nielsen National Client Solutions. “As viewing continues to fragment across screens and devices, Nielsen is working diligently to ensure we can offer the most comprehensive view of media consumption possible. Nielsen’s National Out-of-Home Reporting Service is a key component of our measurement evolution and our plans to provide clients with flexible and powerful products that measure audiences regardless of where content is viewed.”

The service uses Nielsen’s PPM technology from nearly 77,000 installed panelists. The PPM’s portability and low-maintenance by the panelist enables Nielsen to measure TV viewing occurring away from the home and in places such as hotels, gyms, bars, second-homes and the workplace. The syndicated service uses a fusion methodology to combine the PPM footprint across 44 local TV markets with Nielsen’s national representative panel, enabling Nielsen to represent 65% of the TV U.S. household population to project what people are watching outside of their homes.