Nielsen and Comcast extend data deal for advanced audiences and the largest local markets

Nielsen has reached a multiyear renewal agreement to use set-top box “return path data” (RPD) from Comcast Corp. in its cross-platform and national and local TV measurement, the companies announced today.

Terms of the deal, including how many years it spans, the size of the data set and the payments involved were not disclosed. But Nielsen said the inclusion of RPD from Comcast expands its “big data” footprint to nearly 45 million U.S. households. That’s up from the 35 million Nielsen cited last month, and up from the 30 million cited by Pete Doe, chief research officer of Nielsen Audience Measurement, in a presentation to the Advertising Research Foundation’s AudienceXScience conference in April.

Executives of Comcast’s NBCUniversal have been particularly vocal as critics of Nielsen and in advancing alternative measures from ISpot.tv and VideoAmp. The tension raised questions about the future data relationship between the companies that the renewal appears to answer.

Comcast announced a similar data licensing deal with VideoAmp last year, which boosted the latter’s national coverage from 24 million to 49 million U.S. households at the time. And it has previously announced a data deal with Comscore. ISpot.tv draws viewing data from 47 million households but does not receive Comcast data.

Comcast’s prior deal with Nielsen was announced in 2017.

Comcast data is a key input for the next-generation Nielsen One cross-platform measurement system, which formally launched earlier this year and which Nielsen has said it intends to have available as currency for TV and cross-platform deals in time for next year’s upfronts.

But the deal with Comcast is separate from and does not affect any measurement contract with NBCU, a Nielsen spokesman said.

The agreement will further enable increased measurement fidelity in the largest local markets and allow media companies and agencies to gain insight into advanced audiences across platforms, according to the statement from the companies.

Additionally, media companies will be able to take advantage of addressable ads reconciled with Nielsen’s C3 commercial ratings measurement to optimize inventory and ad spending, according to the statement.

Expansion of Nielsen measurement using Comcast data is expected in 2024, which is also when Nielsen previously said it intends to phase out currency deals using C3 and C7 ratings. Those are TV-centric measurements based on average viewership within programs and time shifting using DVRs.

“We are delighted to extend our strategic partnership with Comcast allowing us to continue to embrace the power of big data for our services both locally across nearly 100 markets and nationally with addressable measurement,” Karthik Rao, CEO of Audience Measurement at Nielsen, said in the statement.

“Measurement is one of the foremost, complex and dynamic topics in TV advertising today, and in order to continue to move the needle forward on progress and change, we need to work together to address, reconcile and resolve current industry challenges on this front, said Marcien Jenckes, managing director of Comcast Advertising.