ESPN and Nielsen to Measure How Consumers Interact with Different Media

Will Follow ESPN Content and Advertising Across Television, Computer and Mobile Screens

October 17 , 2007- New York – ESPN, Inc. and The Nielsen Company today announced a ground-breaking collaboration to measure how consumers use media across a variety of platforms including television, the Internet and digital mobile devices.

With its TV network available in 93 million households and approximately 18 million unique Web users per month, ESPN will work with Nielsen, to develop a new model for cross-media measurement.  This will enable buyers and sellers of television advertising to understand more completely the interaction of new digital platforms with traditional television viewing.

 “This ESPN Nielsen initiative will forge new ground in cross-media measurement solutions, allow us to further understand user behavior and provide valuable insight for our advertisers,” said Artie Bulgrin, senior vice president, research and sales development. 

“ESPN is a true multimedia company, with a mission to serve sports fans any time, anywhere and via any device. That makes it a great fit for our capabilities which provide unique insights into the fast changing habits of today’s media users,” said Jon Mandel, chief executive officer of NielsenConnect, the newly formed service group that brings together Nielsen’s full range of information-gathering and insight capabilities.  “I’m particularly thrilled that ESPN is interested in learning how their content drives advertisers’ business.”

The ESPN-Nielsen initiative will have three main parts:

• It will feature the first deployment of Nielsen’s TV/Internet Convergence Panel, the new integrated sample of households being assembled by Nielsen to measure TV and Internet use within the same home. 
  
  

• The initiative will also link together research data from Nielsen Mobile and other measurement sources to evaluate the cross-media usage.
  
  

• Nielsen will also provide the opportunity for several ESPN advertisers to link in and study insights about their advertising on ESPN platforms.
  

Nielsen’s TV/Internet Convergence Panel will provide the first real insight into how people experience television and Internet, including streaming media, in their daily lives.  Panelists will have their television viewing measured by Nielsen’s People Meters and their Internet usage measured by Nielsen//NetRatings’ Internet metering technology. The sample will be assembled from a combination of sources, including newly recruited homes and existing TV panelists who are leaving the National People Meter television sample.  For ESPN, the panel will measure, among other things:

• The impact of TV promotions on driving people to the Internet and of Internet promotions driving users to watch ESPN programs.
  
  

• The number of hours of TV and Internet usage per week, in total, and by time of day for any specific demographic or viewer type.
  
  

• Simultaneous media usage across various combinations, such as viewing TV and streaming.

Also as part of the initiative, Nielsen will link its television and Internet measurement to the ESPN Sports Poll, a syndicated tracking survey of U.S. adults and teenagers that monitors general fan profiles, viewing habits, event attendance and sports industry trends. This data “fusion” will allow ESPN to analyze TV viewing and Internet usage against specific variables from Sports Poll or a combination of variables, such as ESPN’s ratings by program among NFL fans who visit NFL.com.

To measure the impact of ESPN content on mobile devices such as cell phones, Nielsen will also fuse its existing TV/Internet fusion product with data from its Telephia service, which measures mobile web and mobile video usage.

Once the fusion is complete, ESPN will be able to conduct a number of analyses, including:

• Measuring the unduplicated reach of ESPN’s traditional television programming, ESPN.com and ESPN mobile video.
  
  

• Measuring the overlap across the platforms (i.e. what percent of ESPN users use all three platforms or what percent are both TV and mobile, etc.)
  
  

• Being able to illustrate the demographic and market break composition of various combinations of audiences
  

 

About The Nielsen Company

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information (ACNielsen), media information (Nielsen Media Research), online intelligence (NetRatings and BuzzMetrics), trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands, and New York, USA. For more information, please visit www.nielsen.com

About espn

ESPN, Inc. is the leading multinational, multimedia sports entertainment company with over 50 business entities. Sports media assets include ESPN on ABC, six domestic cable television networks, ESPN Regional Television, ESPN International,  ESPN Radio, ESPN.com and other growing new businesses including ESPN360 (Broadband), Mobile ESPN (wireless), ESPN On Demand, ESPN Interactive and ESPN PPV. Based in Bristol, Ct., ESPN is 80 percent owned by ABC, Inc., which is an indirect subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. The Hearst Corporation holds a 20 percent interest in ESPN.

 

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