[ad_1]
According to the Nielsen company, 7.8 million people watched Amazon Prime’s coverage of last Thursday’s NFL game between New Orleans and Arizona. But Amazon said no, there were actually 8.9 million people watching.
So where is it?
You have to judge for yourself. After each of the Thursday night games this season, Amazon has publicly challenged Nielsen in this way, one of the boldest challenges to a company that for generations has monopolized the crowd count. who watch television programs.
Neither company says the other is wrong, but neither backs down. The result is confusion, especially for advertisers.
Nielsen, as it has for many years, follows the viewing habits of a panel of homes across the country and, from a limited sample, gets an estimate of how many watch a particular program. . That number is the currency of the media industry, meaning it is used to determine advertising rates.
Amazon, in the first year of an 11-year contract to stream Thursday night games, says it has an actual count of each of its subscribers who stream it — not one you estimate. The games are also televised in the local markets of the participating teams, about 9% of its total viewership each week, and Amazon uses Nielsen’s estimate for that share of the total. .
“We don’t put out our number if we’re not comfortable that it’s accurate,” said Jay Marine, vice president of Amazon Prime Video and head of its sports department.
For six weeks, Nielsen said Thursday night games averaged 10.3 million viewers. Amazon says the average is 12.1 million. Amazon’s estimates are bigger than Nielsen’s every week.
“I absolutely do not believe that Amazon’s numbers are incorrect,” said Connie Kim, a spokeswoman for Nielsen. “And I don’t believe our numbers are wrong.”
Because different methods are used, it’s not surprising that there are differences in estimates, he said.
“It’s just going to take a little bit of time,” Kim said. “As it progresses it should be a number. But we’re not there yet.”
Currently, ad prices for Thursday games are set using Nielsen numbers. But Amazon clearly has an incentive to let clients know it believes more people are actually watching.
“You have to remember that this is new – new for Nielsen and this is the first time there is actual data for an event like this,” Marine said.
The dispute has clear implications for the future. Streamers don’t have much incentive for daily viewership metrics to be announced, in part because people don’t watch their shows the same way as broadcast television, and they don’t have require numbers verified from a third-party source for advertisers.
But with Netflix is about to introduce advertising, all of that can change very quickly. And when other companies develop technology that can measure viewing more accurately, the standard is now set for public disputing of Nielsen’s numbers.
Sign up for Fortune Features email list so you don’t miss our biggest features, exclusive interviews, and investigations.
[ad_2]
Source link