Nielsen's new measurement service strikes TelevisaUnivision deal

TelevisaUnivision has agreed to a multiyear deal to use Nielsen's next-generation cross-platform measurement, dubbed Nielsen One, for advanced planning and measurement across national, local, digital and audio, as well as its streaming service, the companies announced today.

The joint statement did not specify that TelevisaUnivision would offer Nielsen One as a currency, as did prior announcements last year involving Comscore for local TV and this year with VideoAmp for cross-platform video. But the media company will use the full suite of Nielsen One solutions along with Nielsen Marketing Cloud and the Gracenote Advanced Discovery suite.

The deal is important given Nielsen’s contention that its national panel, currently with approximately 42,000 households, is crucial for ensuring representative measurement from big panels of set-top boxes and smart TVs, particularly of Hispanic and other multicultural households.

But it does not appear to be quite as extensive as TelevisaUnivision’s June announcement that it will incorporate VideoAmp data into the Hispanic identity graph the network rolled out in May and offer VideoAmp as trading currency in cross-platform deals.

Most terms of the agreement with Nielsen were not disclosed, other than it will take effect in January, with Nielsen reaffirming that Nielsen One will be released in December. It is noteworthy that Nielsen is confirming the date—which some in the media industry had called into doubt after the company in August told clients it was delaying use of Nielsen One for transaction purposes until September 2023 as it seeks greater stability in program measurements and sorts through methodology.

A Nielsen spokesperson previously said the company remains on track to roll out Nielsen One by year-end and plans to have it fully ready for trading in the 2024 upfront. Some media executives have expressed doubt about whether Nielsen or the media industry will be ready to transact using Nielsen One by then, given what they see as the need for a full year of the new platform’s data prior to that.

“As an early adopter of Nielsen One, we are excited for TelevisaUnivision to truly unlock the power of representative, cross-media measurement and optimization with advanced audiences to support their growth,” David Kenny, CEO of Nielsen, said in a statement. “We’re committed to delivering solutions that provide a consistent, comparable and de-duplicated view into audience and content consumption, with inclusion and representation at its core.”

“As the leading Spanish-language media and content company in the world, we’re focused on unlocking more value for brands to reach, engage and delight our Spanish-speaking audiences across our streaming, digital, and linear TV offerings,” said Wade Davis, CEO of TelevisaUnivision. “Nielsen has long been a trusted source of audience measurement and continues to innovate as the industry evolves. “