Amazon and Nielsen close ‘Thursday Night Football’ ratings deal

techcrunch.com:

Amazon and data measurement firm Nielsen have sealed a three-year deal for measuring the ratings of Prime Video’s “Thursday Night Football” (TNF). Nielsen said that this would be the first time that the firm will include a streaming service and its live streaming program in its National TV measurement service. The firm will begin measuring next Thursday, August 25, during the “Thursday Night Football” preseason game, when the San Francisco 49ers face off against the Houston Texans.

Nielsen will measure viewership of the game, along with the pregame and post-game shows on Prime Video and Twitch. It will also measure out-of-home viewing and the viewers watching in teams’ local markets via over-the-air stations. Out-of-home viewing refers to bars, restaurants, hotels, etc.

“TNF” will be measured and processed like all other NFL games using Nielsen’s panel, the company said. The same metrics will be reported across all other national networks, Nielsen added.

Numerous major media companies have disapproved of Nielsen’s ability to accurately measure streaming services. For instance, Netflix is notorious for not cooperating with outside rating services like Nielsen and prefers to report viewing numbers on its own, making it hard for Nielsen to be accurate. The company has also struggled to adjust to the streaming era, where people watch from portable devices, like laptops, phones and tablets.

After being accused of underreporting viewers during the pandemic, the Media Rating Council took away Nielsen’s National TV rating accreditation last year. However, the company is confident that the deal with Amazon will reinforce “Nielsen’s ability to measure customers’ changing viewing behaviors and how content owners are distributing