Super Bowl Viewership Convergence and Measurement

Originally posted on MediaVillage.

By: Kevin Peterson, VP, Business Development, Involved Media

For years, viewership convergence and measurement have been a struggle for marketers who heavily rely on both broadcast and streaming services.

Even more so for large, live events like the Super Bowl.

This year, my wife and I hosted a Super Bowl party for about 25 people. We streamed the game through Tubi to three different TVs, an iPad in the kitchen, and a cable box in a bedroom (the safe space in case my friends who are Eagles fans needed it) with the streams being delivered via Apple TV devices.  In the past, the streaming and communal viewership numbers were not captured in reporting. This year, however, re-accredited Nielsen, will include guests like my friend Steve in their reporting, much to the joy of FOX  which had a record-breaking average viewership of 127.7 million across FOX, Tubi, Telemundo, and FOX Deportes.

Somewhere near the start of the fourth quarter, when I realized there was pretty much no chance for me to win the pool, I looked around my busy house to make sure I really understood how Nielsen captured all of us.

Who’s being counted?

The answer lies in the difference between old and newly deployed methodologies, and the ways people are viewing content across broadcast and streaming services, especially during large live events.

First, there’s Nielsen’s traditional panel-based measurement, which is made up of people meters, set-top devices, wearable devices, and opt-in panels. Viewership is measured daily and uploaded each night, and the percentage of the panel that watched each program is calculated.

Next, there’s Nielsen’s Streaming Content Ratings, which Nielsen can measure programs and episodes viewed through the top streaming platforms.  [1]

Third is Nielsen’s accredited method of collecting first-party data from participating streaming services to help measure audiences for live streaming events.  The first-party data sets are large and capture the TV viewing at the device level which is further verified by Nielsen at the person-level with their panel data.  [2]

Fourth, the traditional panel data and the first party data are paired together, in what Nielsen calls “Big Data + Panel”.  Big Data + Panel National TV Measurement combines Nielsen’s unique, high-quality representative panel measurement with data from cable, satellite, set-top boxes, and smart TVs across 45 million households and 75 million devices.   The traditional panel data is used as the source of truth while the first party data is calibrated to assign viewing to the right individuals and project audience estimates to the entire TV population. [3]

Lastly, and used for the first time with Super Bowl LIX, is Nielsen’s Out Of Home TV measurement methodology.  Nielsen can do this as they now have 100% coverage of the U.S., up from 66% in 2024.  This is due to more people adopting Nielsen wearables to help track where the viewers are.  Nielsen claims that they can get a view of communal viewing in homes, bars, restaurants, and hotels across the country and that they are the only measurement provider positioned to accurately deliver both in and out-of-home measurement for live programming.  [4]

Do you believe?

So, are we to believe these numbers and Nielsen?  Are we to believe in the first-party data that is now being given to Nielsen and incorporated into their viewership reporting?

I do believe yes, most likely.

Nielsen started to make me a believer when their diaries were eliminated in 2017 and replaced with additional electronic monitoring, but all belief was lost when their accreditation was removed by the Media Ratings Council (MRC) in 2021.  However, since then, Nielsen has put the work in, refortified their methodologies and measurement systems, became reaccredited in 2023, and now has pulled in many data sources together.

Over the past 10-20 years, I’ve had a hard time believing that “ratings” have been dropping as more and more people view more and more television content, across more and more devices while our population continues to grow.  Our viewing habits changed, and Nielsen and like-minded companies were simply not ready for this change in consumption habits.  My hope is that this not only gives marketers more accurate numbers to make the hard decisions, like if a Super Bowl spot is worth the money, but that good TV programming gets its fair shake (shameless plug for #sixseasonsandamovie from this Community fanboy.)

Who are you wearing?

I know for a fact that none of my guests were flaunting a Nielsen wearable, so our house would have fallen under the projections. And if you take into consideration the other parties on my block, it begins to explain how the game’s HH ratings were down 3% compared to last year, but up 5% in overall viewership.  So even if my buddy Steve was not counted, we are getting closer. That is good news for marketers and something we can believe in.  [5]

Sources:

[1] Streaming Content Ratings

[2] The Media Rating Council Accredits Nielsen’s Innovative Big Data + Panel National TV Measurement

[3] The Media Rating Council Accredits Nielsen’s Innovative Big Data + Panel National TV Measurement

[4] Nielsen Out Of Home Measurement Now Covers 100% Of The United States

[5] Final Super Bowl viewership officially at record-high