29 September 2017: High definition TV measurement is on its way with a 50% increase to the PeopleMeter panel coming next year, following the extension of Nielsen’s contract to supply ratings to the New Zealand market to 2022. 
 
The New Zealand TV panel will be expanded from 600 to 900 households – from around 1500 to 2250 individuals. The change will be progressively implemented from February to September 2018, giving the market an even sharper picture of New Zealand’s changing viewing behaviour.
 
Nielsen’s NZ television measurement contract has been extended by four years to June 2022. The decision was reached by the NZ Television Broadcasters Group in conjunction with the Commercial Communications Council after considering responses from global audience measurement companies.
 
The expansion of the panel means that as the range of video viewing options continues to increase, it will pave the way for integrated video viewing audience measurement across broadcast and online.
 
Nielsen’s development of both television and online video audience measurement through panels and online tracking tools is state of the art audience measurement says Caroline Atford, Executive Director Media, Nielsen NZ. 
 
“The panel expansion is key to delivering more robust, granular measurement to the NZ market and sets the foundations for a future-proof total video audience measurement solution, across all screens and devices,” she says.  
 
��Nielsen is committed – both globally and locally in NZ – to measuring the total audience. The entire team at Nielsen have worked hard to deliver an impeccable standard of service and we’re thrilled to be continuing this partnership with the New Zealand TV industry.” 
 
Louise Bond, Chair of the Commercial Communications Council says: “This panel expansion is great news for advertisers and agencies. Accurate media measurement is at the core of our industry and this panel expansion reflects the need to continuously improve our measurement processes for both individual media channels and is a critical step to accurate audience measurement across channels.  We’ll continue to work closely with Nielsen and the Television Broadcasters Group to develop our total video measurement capability.”
 
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For further information, contact:

Nielsen

Jackie Helliker
T: + 61 403 074 864
E: jackie.helliker@nielsen.com

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 across all devices where 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 provides its clients with both world-class measurement as well as analytics that help improve performance.  

Nielsen, an S&P 500 company, has operations in over 100 countries that cover more than 90 percent of the world’s population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.