Nielsen isn’t backing down from incorporating Amazon’s own reported data to measure audiences for Thursday Night Football.
The Video Advertising Bureau complained earlier this week that it felt like using Amazon numbers would create an unfair advantage for the streaming giant. Sean McManus of CBS Sports echoed the sentiment in a media conference call.
But Nielsen CEO of audience measurement business Karthik Rao wrote a letter to VAB president and CEO Sean Cunningham disagreeing with the bureau’s claims.
“We recognize this is a period of exceptional change in which all parties are at different stages of their own evolution,” the letter said. “However, the search for perfection risks further delaying the measurement innovations that will ultimately help drive the industry into the future. We believe that our principled, transparent and open approach to integrating first-party data requires all publishers to play by the same rules and will accelerate the industry’s move toward a streaming-first world.”
Despite Amazon figures perhaps padding the overall audience numbers, Rao pushed back against some particular gripes the VAB had, calling them “misleading and inaccurate.”
Rao is optimistic other streamers will follow Amazon’s lead.
“While Amazon is the first integration partner, we have been in active discussions with many of our clients for years about incorporating their first-party data for more accurate measurement of audiences across all live program types,” Rao said. “We look forward to bringing more such integrations into our measurement in the near future.”
