Roku, Inc. (NASDAQ: ROKU) and Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) announced that as of October 2021, Roku has now enabled publishers to measure channel content on Roku devices within Nielsen Digital Content Ratings (DCR). Digital Content Ratings provides access to deduplicated reach and demographic insights for channels on Roku devices to identify which programs most effectively reach key audiences. This increase in coverage helps content owners and advertisers navigate the expanding world of TV streaming and is a major milestone on the path to Nielsen ONE, Nielsen’s transformative, cross-media solution that will enable advertisers and publishers to transact using a single metric across linear and digital television.
Nielsen will enable publishers to measure content across Roku’s 55.1 million active accounts (as of Q2 2021). Nielsen Digital Content Ratings (DCR) provides comprehensive audience measurement of digital content consumption, including streaming video, static web pages and mobile apps, across computer, mobile and TV streaming devices. DCR is a census-based, panel- calibrated solution that provides syndicated, granular reach and volumetric reporting to provide advertisers and publishers with a robust understanding of who consumes content across the digital media landscape.
“This strengthens the close collaboration between Roku and Nielsen,” said Lougman Parampath, VP of Product Management, Roku. “DCR’s syndicated, independent measurement provides market transparency and immediate value to our publishers around understanding audiences in their channels. This bolsters our commitment to delivering for our customers and underscores our focus to continue to be an innovator in the evolving TV streaming measurement landscape.”
“TV streaming is the wave of the future for digital video consumption, and Roku is a major player in CTV penetration,” said Ameneh Atai, General Manager, Digital and Advanced TV Commercial Strategy, Nielsen. “With the addition of Roku, DCR will have the capability to measure the majority of CTV platforms devices as well as provide channel partners with an understanding of their overall reach across CTV devices. Armed with these insights, media buyers and sellers can make critical decisions around ad strategies and publishers can create informed programming and content distribution strategies.”
Earlier this year, Nielsen and Roku announced a strategic alliance between the two companies that will help shape the future of media measurement and TV advertising in a streaming-first market. Roku acquired Nielsen’s Advanced Video Advertising (AVA) business, which includes Nielsen’s video automatic content recognition (ACR) and dynamic ad insertion (DAI) technologies. The acquisition will accelerate Roku’s launch of an end-to-end DAI solution with TV programmers. Nielsen and Roku will continue to integrate complementary Nielsen ad and content measurement products into the Roku platform and further advance Nielsen ONE, the company’s cross-media measurement solution.
