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CBS Corporation to Begin Use of Nielsen Out-of-Home Measurement

4 minute read | September 2017

CBS to Uncover Additional Audiences via Nielsen’s Syndicated Service

During Most Recent NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, Out-of-Home Viewing for the Final Four Games on CBS Delivered Additional Average Lift of +18.9%, or 1.1 Million Additional Viewers Per Game

New York, NY — Sept. 21, 2017 — Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) announced today that CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS) has subscribed to Nielsen’s National Out-of-Home Reporting Service. The agreement is effective immediately and provides CBS with out-of-home viewing data, including ratings for all programming and commercial content that aired on the Network for live plus seven days of time-shifted viewing.

“Being able to measure CBS’ content and uncover additional viewers outside the confines of their homes will help us showcase the breadth and depth of our valuable programming to clients in a more robust way,” said David F. Poltrack, Chief Research Officer of CBS Corporation and President of CBS VISION. “Nielsen’s Out-of-Home service has been discussed primarily with regards to sports, but we are pleased this agreement covers all of the Network’s programming and that Nielsen is moving in the right direction as it pertains to measuring the total audience.”

Nielsen is the only measurement company that allows subscribers, via an opt-in service, a look at their combined in-home and out-of-home ratings. The data from Nielsen’s National TV Ratings panel and the viewing away from the home captured by the Portable People Meter (PPM) offers participating clients a more complete and comprehensive look at their audiences by providing weekly reports that include daily audience estimates for program and commercial content.

This National Out-of-Home Reporting service provides networks the ability to count an audience that was previously unmeasured and is a key part of Nielsen’s Total Audience framework. It offers clients consistent and comparable metrics of linear content and ads across the entire media ecosystem. For instance, during the most recent NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, out-of-home viewing for the Final Four games on CBS delivered an additional average lift of 18.9%, raising the average rating to 5.6, or 1.1 million additional viewers per game.

“CBS has been an early adopter of our Nielsen Total Audience measurement offerings, such as out-of-home, which has allowed them to demonstrate their incremental audience lift and help to showcase the benefits to marketers,” said Peter Bradbury, Managing Director, Nielsen National Client Solutions. “As viewing continues to shift across platforms, devices and delivery systems, Nielsen’s commitment to capturing and reporting all consumers’ viewing and out-of-home measurement is a key part of this evolution. We are delighted that CBS will be joining the expanding roster of Nielsen’s television clients who see the value of our National Out-of-Home Reporting service.”

The service uses Nielsen’s PPM technology from nearly 77,000 installed panelists. The PPM’s portability and low-maintenance by the panelist enables Nielsen to measure TV viewing occurring away from the home and in places such as hotels, gyms, bars, second-homes and the workplace. The syndicated service uses a fusion methodology to combine the PPM footprint across 44 local TV markets with Nielsen’s national representative panel, enabling Nielsen to represent 65% of TV U.S. households to project what people are watching outside of their homes.

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 Nielsen 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 CBS

CBS Corporation (NYSE: CBS.A and CBS) is a mass media company that creates and distributes industry-leading content across a variety of platforms to audiences around the world. The Company has businesses with origins that date back to the dawn of the broadcasting age as well as new ventures that operate on the leading edge of media. CBS owns the most-watched television network in the U.S. and one of the world’s largest libraries of entertainment content, making its brand—“the Eye”—one of the most recognized in business. The Company’s operations span virtually every field of media and entertainment, including cable, publishing, radio, local TV, film, and interactive and socially responsible media. CBS’ businesses include CBS Television Network, The CW (a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Warner Bros. Entertainment), CBS Television Studios, CBS Studios International, CBS Television Distribution, CBS Consumer Products, CBS Home Entertainment, CBS Interactive, CBS Films, Showtime Networks, CBS Sports Network, Pop (a joint venture between CBS Corporation and Lionsgate), Smithsonian Networks, Simon & Schuster, CBS Television Stations, CBS Radio and CBS EcoMedia. For more information, go to www.cbscorporation.com.

Press Contacts

Sal Tuzzeo (Nielsen), Sal.Tuzzeo@nielsen.comGorki De Los Santos (Nielsen), Gorki.Delossantos@nielsen.comKelli Raftery (CBS Corporation), kelli.raftery@cbs.com