Nielsen will incorporate a slate of updates and “enhancements” to its TV ratings product for the 2026-27 season, including a change to its monthly snapshot of viewing across various platforms that sparked a small controversy earlier this year.
That change — a different way of measuring the total number of TV users in the United States — along with updates to co-viewing measurement, more accurate weighting of the big data and panel components in TV ratings and other tweaks are set to be incorporated into Nielsen’s product starting Sept. 1, after passing muster with oversight body the Media Rating Council. Data for clients and publicly released numbers aren’t likely to change significantly, but Nielsen is touting a product that will be more accurate.
Nielsen had planned to incorporate a change to its monthly Gauge measurement of viewing share for broadcast, cable and streaming outlets in the February edition. Pushback from some clients, however, led to Nielsen tabling the changes until the start of the 2026-27 season. At issue was the incorporation of data from the Advertising Research Foundation, known as the DASH TV Universe Study, that likely would have shown a one-time reset in viewing, with a slightly larger share attributed to linear outlets (mostly benefiting cable) and a bit less for streaming platforms.
One problem: The DASH survey data, gathered by polling firm NORC at the University of Chicago, lagged by 12 to 18 months. Nielsen says it has addressed that lag time in its updates and will incorporate more current data about TV viewing, and the Gauge data will better align with the currency ratings that are used to set ad rates across the industry.
What won’t change in the updated Gauge numbers is the overall trend line. Streaming has been approaching half of all TV use in the U.S. for most of the past year, and it will likely still command the largest share of viewing by a wide margin. But the updated universe estimates that incorporate the DASH study will set a new baseline for streaming, cable and broadcast viewing.
Other updates include:
• An enhancement of Nielsen’s co-viewing measurement by better incorporating data from the company’s wearable devices along with that from people meters. The wearables are also used to calculate out of home viewing.
• Incorporation of data from Census Bureau’s American Community Survey and the National Hispanic Enumeration Survey to give a better estimate of Spanish-language viewers and to help differentiate between primarily Spanish- and English-language households among Hispanic viewers.
• What Nielsen is calling “integrated weighting” in combining its big data and panel measurement to be more consistent and accurate. The model will also now account for smart TV owners who opted out of data sharing.
• An enhancement of a machine learning tool to determine demographic information of households from big data providers.
“We are relentless in our pursuit of delivering the most accurate measurement possible for our media and advertising clients,” Nielsen CEO Karthik Rao said in a statement. “We’ve spent months working hand in hand with them and industry experts to make Big Data + Panel even more accurate.”
