Nielsen says it will report on who’s watching streamed shows
NEW YORK — The Nielsen company, which has long measured viewership of television programs, now says it has a way to collect and widely spread details about how many people watch programming produced by streaming services like Netflix and Amazon.
Nielsen announced its new service on Wednesday and said that eight television networks and studios, including ABC and NBC, have subscribed to it.
Even with Hulu’s “The Handmaid’s Tale” winning an Emmy for best drama last month, the number of people who actually watch the program has remained a mystery. Since 2014, Nielsen has been able to count viewership of streamed programs but reported it only to the companies that stream them. The companies, led by industry behemoth Netflix, have largely kept that information a secret.
Now, Nielsen will be able to measure viewership of streamed programs through an audio signature that does not require any action by the programmers to activate it, said Brian Fuhrer, Nielsen’s senior vice-president of product leadership.