Global Leader in Audience Measurement Partners Japan’s Leading Marketing and Media Research Company

Tokyo, Japan – Jan. 6, 2017 – Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN, Head office: New York, Chief Executive Officer: Mitch Barns, “Nielsen” and Video Research Ltd (Head office: Tokyo, President: Yuzuru Kato, “VR”) today announced they have established a business partnership to create a standard and common digital (PC and Mobile) audience measurement service for the Japan market.

The rapid increase of smartphone penetration in Japan in recent years has brought about more diversity in how consumers view media content and advertising. The VR and Nielsen partnership will measure the reach of content and advertising across Japan via PC and mobile devices, to strengthen Internet audience measurement indices and advertising effectiveness services for the Japanese market. The goal of the partnership is to drive further activation of the Internet media and ad market in Japan.

The partnership will involve both Nielsen and VR making a cross-investment in the respective company’s subsidiary organisations, Video Research Interactive Inc. (“VRI”) and Nielsen Digital Co., Ltd (“Nielsen Digital”). Under the newly formed partnership VRI and Nielsen Digital will create an audience measurement metric which integrates methodologies for internet advertising, content and video, explore opportunities for technical collaboration to drive the integration process, jointly develop digital audience measurement indices, and sell mutual products.

“The media sector in Japan has experienced unprecedented change in recent years, and our clients require new and innovative metrics which help them stay ahead of these changes,” says Jun Miyamoto, President of Nielsen Digital. “We are excited to commence this new relationship with Video Research, and look forward to shedding new light on the media habits of Japanese consumers.”

“We are delighted to be working more closely with Nielsen Digital through this new partnership,” notes Toshiyuki Endo, President & CEO of Video Research Interactive. “The combined power of Nielsen Digital and Video Research Interactive’s audience measurement and analytics capabilities is unequalled, and this partnership will contribute to the development of Japanese media and advertising industry.”

About Video Research

Video Research Ltd. (Head Office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, President: Yuzuru Kato) is Japan’s leading marketing and media research company, offering a comprehensive menu of services ranging from authoritative media research to syndicated and custom consumer marketing research. Our media audience ratings research continues to set the standard for the industry and is relied on by virtually every major media company, advertising agency and advertiser in Japan.

VR is also the only marketing research company that has a nationwide network of branch offices capable of instantly implementing nationwide integrated research.

About Video Research Interactive

Video Research Interactive Inc. (Head office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, President: Toshiyuki Endo) provides industry standard data and solutions for maximizing and optimizing media value and advertising effectiveness in the interactive domain, we support corporate communication activities. We have been active since 1999 with Internet audience measurement business, advertisement statistics business, advertisement effectiveness business.

ABOUT NIELSEN

Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global performance management company that provides a comprehensive understanding of what consumers watch and buy. Nielsen’s Watch segment provides media and advertising clients with Total Audience measurement services for all devices on which content — video, audio and text — is consumed. The Buy segment offers consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers the industry’s only global view of retail performance measurement. By integrating information from its Watch and Buy segments and other data sources, Nielsen also provides its clients with analytics that help improve performance. Nielsen, an S&P 500 company, has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than 90% of the world’s population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

ABOUT NIELSEN DIGITAL

Nielsen Digital Co., Ltd. (Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo, President: Jun Miyamoto), a Japanese subsidiary of Nielsen, provides data, analysis, and insight to support important business decision making of its advertiser, media, eCommerce and agency clients through audience measurement and advertising analysis.

CONTACTS

Video Research: Junichiro Nakahara, webmaster@videor.co.jp, +81-3-5860-1723Nielsen Digital: Soichiro Nishimura, jpw_press@nielsen.com, +81-3-6837-6521