Big Data + Panel Provides More Accurate Measurement
Data Than Ever Before
New Big Data + Panel Rankings to be Available for Press
New York – September 2, 2025 – With the start of the broadcast and football seasons this month, Nielsen today shared several updates for reporters covering TV, as the industry is adopting Nielsen’s enhanced Big Data + Panel methodology. Nielsen is the first accredited national TV audience measurement provider for Big Data + Panel, which provides the most-accurate TV measurement to date. For more on Big Data + Panel, watch this video.
“The embrace of Big Data + Panel ratings marks a once in a generation enhancement for the industry,” said Karthik Rao, Nielsen CEO. “Combining the trusted, historical measurement of our Nielsen homes with millions of big data inputs gives us the most accurate numbers ever. We developed this measurement advancement in service of and in collaboration with our clients. We are proud to work with them to deliver these numbers for the new season.”
Updated Press Policy
As of September 1, Nielsen’s Press Policy outlines that all press claims by broadcasters, networks and streamers should be based on Big Data + Panel. Due to the fact that Big Data + Panel data is generally delivered to Nielsen clients two to three days after a premiere, there is an exception to the press policy for single day events. If a client chooses to send next day claims to press, these should be sourced as “Nielsen Preliminary Data.” The Big Data + Panel update will be treated as a final number for press claims.
Nielsen.com Rankings
While the majority of Big Data + Panel ratings news will come directly from clients, Nielsen is also updating its press website and client portal to reflect the new methodology. Starting October 1, the page will include the following weekly rankings with Big Data + Panel: Broadcast Programs; Broadcast Network Averages; Cable Programs; Cable Network Averages; Syndication Programs; Sports Events; and Total Scheduled Programming. These rankings will start with the official beginning of the Broadcast season on September 22. The data for the week of September 22 will be available on October 1.
Nielsen Data: By the Numbers
Nielsen is the leading measurement provider for TV ratings and live sports, holding current deals with all major broadcasters, streamers and professional sports leagues. Big Data + Panel was widely adopted by the vast majority of broadcasters and agencies as currency for the 2025 Upfront. Here’s an overview of the level of data Nielsen measures:
- The company delivers over 100 terabytes of data to clients every day.
- In the typical month, Nielsen measures more than 1 trillion minutes of viewing across all streaming apps.
- Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel includes measurement from set-top boxes and smart TVs across 45 million households and 75 million devices.
- Nielsen’s persons panel consists of more than 42,000 homes and 100,000 people across the U.S., by far the largest of its kind domestically.
- After scaling its Out of Home measurement to cover all of the U.S. earlier this year, Nielsen is actively recruiting an additional 8,600 out of home panelists to further enhance measurement.
- Every month, Nielsen releases The Gauge and Media Distributor Gauge, the trusted sources of truth for the share of time spent across TV.
- Every week, the company shares its Nielsen Streaming Top 10, the defining list of top streaming TV shows and movies.
- Every quarter, Nielsen releases The Ad Supported Gauge, providing the most comprehensive look at the portion of TV that delivers advertising across broadcast, cable and streaming.
About Big Data + Panel
Big Data + Panel National TV Measurement combines Nielsen’s unique, high-quality representative panel measurement with data from cable, satellite set-top boxes and smart TVs across 45 million households and 75 million devices. Nielsen is also incorporating first-party data from participating streaming services to help measure audiences for live streaming events. These are massive datasets that capture TV viewing at the device level.
Big Data + Panel fuels planning and measurement in the Nielsen ecosystem and partners’ systems, enabling cross-platform advanced audiences at scale. This measurement innovation can be utilized to support the media industry beyond advertising planning and buying, by helping to inform content programming and licensing decisions, along with carriage fees for TV distribution deals.
Big Data + Panel continues Nielsen’s track record of innovation and modernization. In addition to bringing Big Data + Panel measurement to the market, Nielsen has expanded National TV out-of-home measurement. Nielsen is also the industry leader in streaming measurement with widely adopted products like Streaming Content Ratings (which feeds in Nielsen’s Streaming Top 10) and Streaming Platform Ratings (which provides the streaming data behind The Gauge and Media Distributor Gauge).
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.
For advertisers, agencies, and publishers, Nielsen has recently expanded Nielsen ONE to include outcomes capabilities, in addition to advanced audiences, planning and measurement. Learn more at www.nielsen.com and connect with us on social media (X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook and Instagram).
Contacts
Lauren Pabst, Nielsen Communications lauren.pabst@nielsen.com
Carole Robinson, Nielsen Communications carole.robinson@nielsen.com
