Events Measured Include Super Bowl LX, Olympics Opening Ceremony, NBA All Star Game, Daytona 500, Olympics Closing Ceremony, Olympics Men’s Hockey Gold Medal Game, and State of the Union Address
Nielsen Leveraged State of the Art Wearable Devices to More Accurately Capture Shared Viewing
New York – May 5, 2026 – Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data and media intelligence, today announced the results of its co-viewing pilot for February’s top live televised events.
The new data shows an average +4.19% lift in total viewers for the following marquee live events: Super Bowl LX, Olympics Opening Ceremony, NBA All Star Game, Daytona 500, Olympics Closing Ceremony, Olympics Men’s Hockey Gold Medal Game and State of the Union Address.
The co-viewing results from the pilot program will not be included in final and official Big Data + Panel ratings for Nielsen clients, thus will not be considered “currency” that advertisers transact on. Nielsen plans to have the co-viewing methodology enhancement fully implemented into its suite of media intelligence products with a goal of incorporating it into “currency” measurement for the 2026/2027 TV season.
“Our Co-Viewing pilot exemplifies our unwavering commitment to providing the most accurate measurement for our clients during these dynamic times of change,” said Karthik Rao, CEO, Nielsen. “In the past year alone we’ve made continued enhancements to our ratings to better reflect the power of live TV in reaching massive audiences.”
Nielsen’s co-viewing enhancement layers in panelists using wearable devices inside of the home. Those wearable devices were not previously applied to the co-viewing modeling, as Nielsen has been introducing more high-tech wearables into its panel.
The co-viewing pilot continues Nielsen’s trend of innovating measurement to adapt to the modern TV marketplace. Only Nielsen can reliably measure live sporting events and the company has added Big Data + Panel measurement, out of home measurement expansion and now the co-viewing pilot to expand its capabilities on behalf of clients.
More detailed information on specific demos for the co-viewing pilot have been made available to clients directly. Nielsen will continue sharing impact data with clients for its co-viewing pilot throughout the year.
About Nielsen
Nielsen is a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics. Through our understanding of people and their behaviors across all channels and platforms, we empower our clients with independent and actionable intelligence so they can connect and engage with their global audiences—now and into the future. Learn more at www.nielsen.com and connect with us on social media (X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram).
Contacts
David Schwarz, Nielsen Communications
David.Schwarz@nielsen.com
