Nielsen's new co-viewing pilot program for Super Bowl LX may wind up key to ratings' future
Published about 9 hours ago • 3 min read
Welcome back to Bucholtz Sports Media! This post is free for everyone thanks to our premium subscribers. You can join them here for $5 a month. Now, on to the news...
The Nielsen logo. (Nielsen.com.)
Super Bowl pilot program may lead to bigger ratings changes
This new co-viewing program will start with Sunday's Super Bowl LX and then continue for other high-profile live sports and entertainment events over the next few months. Nielsen has tracked co-viewing (how many people are watching one event on a single TV, which is quite important for sports numbers in particular) before, but they're testing out a different approach here based on their wearable technology. And while it's important to note that this pilot program won't have any effect on the "main" Nielsen Super Bowl LX numbers (from the Big Data+panel approach, those are still considered currency for broadcasters and advertisers and should come out in the days after the game, while this is a separate, more experimental program that will have its results come out a few weeks later), this new approach is planned to be incorporated more broadly ahead of the start of the 2026-27 TV season this fall. Here's more on what's planned, from a Nielsen release:
Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data and media intelligence, today announced that it is piloting a new methodology enhancement to more accurately account for co-viewing. This will better reflect the total viewership for programming - in particular LIVE events.
...“Nielsen’s mission is to constantly push measurement forward and deliver the most accurate data ever. This co-viewing pilot builds on that mission, alongside our recent enhancements with Big Data + Panel, out of home expansion, live streaming measurement and our wearable devices,” said Karthik Rao, CEO, Nielsen. “Our clients produce live TV events that get the world watching. It’s our job to make sure we are accurately counting the audiences they meticulously build.”
Nielsen has always been uniquely positioned to account for instances of multiple viewers in front of the TV screen (co-viewing). The new pilot methodology for co-viewing better incorporates the use of Nielsen’s proprietary wearable measurement devices. These are worn on the wrists of Nielsen panelists and resemble a smart watch. The wearables capture audio from TV events, shows and movies, allowing for more passive measurement that does not require a formal log in process.
...As noted above, the co-viewing estimates from the pilot program will not be immediately included in Big Data + Panel ratings from Nielsen. As such, they will not be considered “currency” that advertisers transact on, but the pilot data will be made available to Nielsen clients following the delivery of Big Data + Panel ratings. Clients will be able to share those findings publicly. Nielsen will provide additional impact data to clients later this year, before the co-viewing methodology is fully implemented into its suite of marketing intelligence products with a goal of incorporating in “currency” measurement for the 2026/2027 season. This co-viewing enhancement is the first phase, with additional co-viewing enhancements planned beyond 2026. Nielsen will share additional timing details on later phases once available.
Co-viewing measurement has long been a discussion around sports in particular, as big sports events are something many people watch together. The idea of co-viewing is already included in the current Nielsen estimates (and was included in the previous setup as well), but this pilot program sounds like it will focus on tracking that with more specificity. It's unclear what the actual effect of that on the viewership numbers will be, but the bet here would be that for the Super Bowl in particular, this pilot program may lead to larger co-viewing numbers (and thus, a larger overall audience) than the way the current measurement setup accounts for co-viewing. If that does wind up being the case, and if this pilot program does wind up incorporated in those "currency" measurements (the ones actually used by advertisers, broadcasters, and leagues in negotiations), it could be another methodological shift that boosts sports TV numbers, something that's been seen from both increased out-of-home tracking and the Big Data+Panel adoption.
Of course, bigger viewership numbers on their own don't necessarily mean more money, especially immediately. Most league TV contracts are locked in for many years, if not a decade. The viewership numbers do matter to advertisers and broadcasters, but this pilot program will be only interesting extra information until it becomes currency. And if this does wind up boosting the numbers, advertisers may well make the same arguments that they did with out-of-home, saying they were already paying for those viewers even if they weren't as explicitly tracked (like co-viewing, the existence of out-of-home viewing was well known before it became measured the way it is now). But the increased precision in measuring out-of-home viewers has been helpful for both broadcasters and advertisers in estimating how many people they're actually reaching and negotiating deals around that. And this co-viewing program may wind up having a similar effect down the road.
