NEW YORK—Nielsen and Vizio have announced a multi-year agreement that provides the audience measurement firm with viewership information from the set maker’s Inscape Smart TV data.
Nielsen, which began licensing Inscape for national addressable measurement in 2021, now has the right to integrate Vizio’s Inscape data in both its local and national audience-measurement solutions.
The deal also includes a period of exclusivity for data gathered from an expanded roster of 400 local stations that will be processed by Inscape’s systems.
Vizio’s Inscape data captures viewing data from millions of connected TV devices (including cable box, set-top box , DVR, etc.) and streaming environments. Automatic content recognition (ACR) data provides scale, granularity and timely insights, enabling greater understanding of what is being watched in millions of U.S. households by measuring on-screen content regardless of source.
Through this agreement, Nielsen can now add Big Data from a pool of about 20 million smart TVs, a key enhancement that includes coverage for 400 stations across local U.S. markets that currently include Local People Meter, Set Meter and Portable People Meter panels.
“At Nielsen, we are committed to innovating as consumers further embrace new ways to watch their favorite programs,” said Michelle Gelman, global head of Nielsen’s Content and Syndicated Products. “Inscape’s ACR data from one of the leading Smart TV manufacturers will help us drive value to our clients and, ultimately, help them drive ROI as they seek to reach their audience.”
Added Vizio chief revenue and engagement Officer Mike O’Donnell said: “As viewing trends shift and audiences fragment across different services, Inscape has been at the forefront of powering products that are better for the consumer experience and bringing greater transparency and scale to the measurement sector. We’re excited to work with Nielsen and for the inclusion of our opted-in viewing data in Nielsen’s services as we continue to help the entire TV marketplace evolve.”
Nielsen’s panels will be used to validate what is missing in big data sets, including complete representation, over-the-air inclusion, validation of diverse representation, understanding when the TV is on or off, and person-level measurement. Nielsen will add Big Data to its national TV measurement beginning in September, a major step towards the launch of Nielsen One, the forthcoming single, deduplicated solution for cross-media measurement.
