Tag: Audience Measurement.

Jessica Holscott takes charge at Nielsen as chief financial officer

MUMBAI: Jessica Holscott is no stranger to high-stakes financial strategy. From helming finance at Warner Media to steering the ship at Spotter, she has danced with industry giants-and now, she’s stepping into the spotlight at Nielsen.

Effective today, Holscott assumes the role of chief financial officer (CFO) for the global audience measurement leader, bringing a razor-sharp financial acumen and an eye for innovation. She will report directly to Nielsen’s chief executive officer Karthik Rao.

As CFO, Holscott will oversee Nielsen’s financial landscape worldwide, covering financial planning and analysis, tax, controllership, internal audit, and treasury. It’s a tall order, but for someone with Holscott’s pedigree, it’s just another day at the office.

“Jessica is a proven, world-class financial leader and we are fortunate to have her join Nielsen at such an important time,” said Rao. “Within the past year, we have introduced several groundbreaking products for our clients as we continue to be the leader in TV measurement and streaming TV data. As we continue to innovate and add even more advanced ad tech offerings to our suite, Jessica’s strategic vision and experience will be key for our evolution.”

Holscott brings over 20 years of financial expertise spanning multiple industries. Most recently, she served as CFO at Spotter, a creator-focused company. Before that, she led financial strategy as CFO and EVP for Warner Media, where she played a pivotal role in steering the finances of Warner Bros., HBO, and the Turner Networks. She also held CFO and EVP roles at HBO, demonstrating her ability to navigate complex financial landscapes. Her past experience includes leading Investor Relations at Time Warner and Aptiv (Delphi), and she cut her teeth at General Electric, where she climbed the ranks from corporate audit to Chief of Staff for the Vice Chairman and CFO.

“I am honoured to join Nielsen as CFO at such a transformational time for the company and industry. Nielsen continues to raise the bar when it comes to innovation and I’m thrilled to work alongside Karthik and my fellow leaders to keep the momentum going as the leader in audience measurement,” said Holscott.

Nielsen kicks off the year with its signature drive for innovation and modernisation. The company recently secured accreditation for its big data + panel measurement and out-of-home (OOH) expansion, following the accreditation of its first-party live streaming solution in November 2024. As the trusted industry leader in audience measurement, Nielsen’s ratings and rankings-spanning linear TV, the Nielsen Streaming Top 10, and The Gauge-remain the gold standard in the television and advertising space.

With Holscott at the financial helm, Nielsen is poised to accelerate its evolution in data analytics and audience measurement.

February 27, 2025
Sports leads the way in TV co-viewing, but trends vary by audience

MUMBAI: The Super Bowl isn’t just a football game; it’s a national viewing party. Year after year, the event attracts record-breaking TV audiences, and in 2024, Super Bowl LVIII took the crown as the largest single-network telecast in history. But sports co-viewing isn’t just about the ‘Big Game’. According to a new Nielsen report, nearly 47 per cent of all TV viewing in the U.S. happens with at least one other person—be it friends, family, or even a few strangers at the bar.

However, while co-viewing is easy to understand, it isn’t always easy to measure. Many media planners still rely on outdated, flat co-viewing factors—estimates like “1.2 viewers per TV screen at 2 pm and 1.5 at 8 pm”. As TV audiences become more fragmented, this approach is no longer enough. Sports programming offers a clear example of how outdated these assumptions can be.

Nielsen’s data from September 2022 to August 2024 highlights the dramatic month-to-month variations in co-viewing rates. Co-viewing rates ranged from 37 per cent in August 2023 to nearly 50 per cent in January and February 2024—just in time for major sporting events like the Super Bowl and Copa América.

Interestingly, even high-profile global events like the FIFA World Cup and the Women’s World Cup saw lower-than-expected co-viewing in the U.S.. The reason? Time zones matter. When matches are scheduled in the middle of the night or early morning, it’s harder to gather a crowd—no matter how exciting the event.

The study also uncovered significant co-viewing gaps across different demographic groups. Over the two-year period, Hispanic audiences had a 20-point higher co-viewing rate for sports compared to black viewers. Age also played a role—younger audiences were more likely to watch in groups, while older viewers tended to watch alone.

Household size matters, but so do social habits. Hispanic families tend to have larger households, leading to more natural co-viewing opportunities. Younger audiences, meanwhile, are more likely to watch sports together at bars or with friends, even though they watch less traditional TV overall.

How does sports programming compare to other genres? The answer might surprise you.

Children’s programming actually had higher and more consistent co-viewing rates than sports. Not shocking—kids rarely watch TV alone. Game shows also saw strong co-viewing growth, benefiting from streaming platforms that have introduced the genre to a younger audience. Meanwhile, news, dramas, and variety shows hovered just above the 30 per cent co-viewing mark.

What can advertisers and media owners take away from these insights? Flat co-viewing factors are outdated. While sports programming shows how drastically co-viewing fluctuates, other genres also have their own subtle, audience-specific variations.

For advertisers, targeting a specific demographic or advanced audience means relying on real-world co-viewing data rather than static estimates. If your strategy still assumes fixed co-viewing multipliers, it’s time to update your playbook.

For media owners, understanding whether people watch alone or with others can directly impact content creation, monetisation strategies, and advertising sales. If you know who’s watching together, you can optimise your programming accordingly.

In a world where TV audiences are fragmented across platforms and devices, one thing remains clear: co-viewing is here to stay—but you need the right data to make the most of it.

February 24, 2025
I&B ministry forms Joint Working Group for audience measurement sampling

Mumbai: The ministry of information and broadcasting (MIB) has formed a Joint Working Group to formulate a mandate for exploring data capturing capabilities in Set Top Boxes (STBs) for audience measurement sampling.

With Prasar Bharti CEO Shashi Shekhar Vempati as the chairman and DTH association president Harit Nagpal as a member, the joint working group will have one representative each from MeitY, BIS, Barc India, and AIDCF. It will submit its report to the I&B ministry within the next four months.

The current guidelines for the TV Rating Agencies prescribe the use of panel homes, drawn by establishment survey and representative of the TV viewing population, for carrying out the Audience measurement. However, the latest recommendations from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) and TRP committee headed by Prasar Bharati CEO suggested combining traditional sample-based statistical approaches with big data approaches like Return Path Data in STBS.

The new working group has been entrusted to study different aspects of the data capturing including Return Path Data (RPD) in the context of the audience measurement, international practices, and security of the viewership data. “It will also study successful global best practices in RPD, like that of Canada, the models undertaken by Barc India and other independent experiments by DTH operators and other relevant stakeholders,” said the ministry on Wednesday.

The Group will specify minimum standards for RPD capable STBS, SOPs for certification and audit of the same, and specify common protocols, data standards, and modifications to current rating methodology so that data from RpD capable STBS could be integrated into the current TV ratings system.

Additionally, it will specify minimum standards for any smartphone-based Apps to augment the above proposed RPD system for integration into the current TV ratings.

-Specify SOPs for certification and audit of the same.

-Evolve a consensus for how such different data sets including RpD/ smartphone-based data collection will be priced/ costs shared within the framework of the TV ratings system.

-Specify consent-based privacy framework to govern all such data collection and use within TV ratings.

-Establish timelines for rollout of above with a clear roadmap to guide all stakeholders while laying out points of responsibility for the same.

January 12, 2022
BARC India’s Derrick Gray appointed as MRSI VP

Mumbai: BARC India’s chief of measurement science and business analytics Dr Derrick Gray has been appointed as vice president of the Market Research Society of India (MRSI).

Earlier this year, Gray was also appointed as chair of the professional standards committee at MRSI that was established to ensure strong ethical and professional standards for the Indian market research industry.

“I am quite honored to assume the role at MRSI India,” said Dr Gray. “With my experience over the years in statistical research, measurement and data science, I am looking forward to working collaboratively with the team at MRSI. We hope to be able to make significant progress together as a team.”

A veteran audience measurement and advanced analytics executive, Gray brings with him a global experience of two decades in audience measurement and audience information systems for various media including linear TV, digital video, and radio. He has lead several statistical research, measurement science, data science functions during his distinguished career.

He has previously served on the board of directors of the Marketing Research and Intelligence Association (MRIA) of Canada.

“We at BARC India are extremely proud of Derrick’s recent appointment and would like to congratulate him. We wish him all the success for this new role and look forward to him guiding market research in India to even greater heights,” said BARC India CEO Nakul Chopra.

September 13, 2021
BARC temporarily halts news channel ratings amid TRP row

KOLKATA: In the light of the recent developments, BARC board has proposed that its technical committee (Tech Comm) review and augment the current standards of measuring and reporting the data of niche genres, to improve their statistical robustness and to significantly hamper the potential attempts of infiltrating the panel homes. This exercise would cover all Hindi, regional, English news and business news channels with immediate effect.

Therefore, starting with the ‘news genre,' BARC will cease publishing the weekly individual ratings for all news channels during the exercise. This exercise is expected to take around eight-twelve weeks including validation and testing under the supervision of BARCs TechComm. BARC will continue to release weekly audience estimates for the genre of news by state and language.

BARC India board chairman Punit Goenka said: “Given the most recent developments, the BARC board was of the opinion that a pause was necessitated to enable the industry and BARC to work closely to review its already stringent protocols and further augment them to enable the industry to focus on collaborating for growth and well-natured competitiveness”.

BARC India CEO Sunil Lulla said: “We at BARC take our role in truthfully and faithfully reporting ‘what India watches’ with the greatest sense of responsibility and work with integrity to ensure that our audience estimates (ratings) remain true to their purpose." He added: “Besides augmenting current protocols and benchmarking them with global standards, BARC is actively exploring several options to discourage unlawful inducement of its panel home viewers and further strengthening its code of conduct to address viewership malpractice."

October 15, 2020
Delhi, Mumbai largest markets for OTT audio streaming

MUMBAI: There is a strong interplay between radio and OTT audio streaming resulting in what can be called a “Battle for the Ear”, according a study.

The OTT Audience Measurement Insights – a first-of-its-kind, passive, continuous audience measurement service – has been launched by Kantar and VTION and it will bring the streaming audio medium on par with radio, TV, print and digital platforms.

In the inaugural release, the study has picked up certain unique regarding content consumption patterns as OTT audio streaming players seem to have built unique core audiences.

There is a clear pattern of consumption of songs that go beyond ‘trending’ time-frame giving them a longer lifespan. The study also shows that the OTT platforms are also effectively competing with TV in the weekday morning slots.

The study reports multiple variables by gender, time of the day, age group, genre, OTT platforms, NCCS, and cities for the content being consumed.

Hemant Mehta, Managing Director, Insights Division & Chief Strategy Officer, Kantar South Asia, said: “The year 2020 will be ‘The Battle for the ear’ as OTT Audio platforms are shaking up the music market, especially by creating an intense competition between Radio and OTT Audio platforms. Today the listeners are spoilt for choice as far as content consumption is concerned and move across the platforms to fulfill their entertainment needs. The OTT Audience measurement is redefining the audience measurement space as it provides rich insights ranging from listening habits across devices, age groups, peak times, and genres and so on and addresses a need for a robust solution to track the OTT space. Our joint initiative withVTION has provided the industry with the much-needed metrics that will ultimately help the marketers understand the consumer profiles, their content and platform preferences required for effective communication planning and implementation.’’

Manoj Dawane, Founder & CEO of VTION, added: "Audio as a medium of entertainment and engagement, comprising of OTT platforms, broadcast radio and podcasting, is a fast-growing media segment in India. We believe that a well-defined and unbiased independent measurement system will catalyse growth even more as marketers, platform owners and content owners will be able to drive relevance, programme meaningfully and target audiences effectively. Our partnership with Kantar combines their deep consumer behaviour understanding with our patent-pending technology to serve the industry better and grow the market.”

Key Findings

 13 Million adults listened to any OTT streaming App in the last 30 days over nine cities.
 OTT Audio streaming peaks between 9 PM- 9.30 over weekends, almost making it the new prime time. Weekend listenership trumps weekdays.
 The medium is fast catching on across audience groups providing “personal, me time”
 Delhi and Mumbai at 25% each are the largest OTT audio streaming markets, followed by Kolkata and Bangalore standing at 11% and 10%, respectively.
 Mumbai is deeply entrenched in terms of OTT Audio streaming, capturing 44% of the pie followed by Delhi at 25%.
 Clear interplay between Radio and OTT Audio streaming – Battle for the ear
 Strong correlation between radio and streaming audio; OTT streaming seems to be thriving in markets where radio listenership habit is not strong.
 Among the top 10 songs
o 2 Singles amongst 10 songs
o 3 Remix / version / Recreation
o Longevity of Music beyond the theatrical: Kabir Singh

The OTT Audience Measurement offering brings together Kantar’s expertise in media measurement and consumer insights with VTION’s proprietary audience measurement technology and data management framework to provide a unique, comprehensive understanding of audience behaviour, insights for communication planning as well assessment of ROI for media investments across OTT video platforms, OTT audio streaming & podcasting and broadcast radio FM platforms.

The study is based on a robust sample size of 9000+ stretching across top nine cities (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad & Lucknow/Kanpur) among the male and female of age group of 18+ and across SEC A, B & CDE.

February 24, 2020
Kantar and VTIONTM announce partnership to roll out ‘OTT Audience Measurement’ solution

MUMBAI: Kantar, the world’s leading data, insights and consulting company, has partnered with VTIONTM to roll out ‘OTT Audience Measurement’, India’s first, real-time audience measurement solution that redefines audience measurement.

The joint, go-to-market offering brings together Kantar’s expertise in media measurement and Consumer insights with VTIONTM’s proprietary audience measurement technology and data management framework to provide a unique, comprehensive understanding of audience behaviour, insights for communication planning as well assessment of ROI for media investments across OTT Video platforms, OTT Audio Streaming & Podcasting and Broadcast Radio FM Platforms.

“With consumers moving seamlessly across screens, it is imperative that their behaviour across different media platforms is tracked comprehensively. The explosion in smart phone ownership, availability of affordable data plans and launch of multiple OTT based media options, have resulted in consumers increasingly spending time on their phones and seek their entertainment solutions. OTT platforms have broken the shackles of linear broadcasting and are changing consumers’ entertainment and media consumption habits. With the launch of OTT Audience Measurement solution, we hope to provide rich insights into audience profiles, their content and platform preferences as well as give guidelines for communication planning and activation. We are confident that our partnership with VTIONTM will bring immense value for all the constituents of the industry – content creators, platforms, brand owners and media planners”. Kantar Insights Division managing director Hemant Mehta said.

“Today, more than half of the world’s population has the power of smartphones. This is profoundly changing the way in which consumers are satisfying their entertainment needs by using their devices to discover and consume content of their choice as per their convenience. At VTIONTM, we, are utilising this power to study their entertainment consumption habits. Our mission is to bring to the market a real-time audience measurement powered by latest technology. Our partnership with Kantar and our proprietary data management framework, which utilizes advanced Machine Learning algorithms, will significantly enhance consumer understanding and add new layer of intelligence for the industry, ” VTIONTM founder and CEO Manoj Dawane said.

November 18, 2019

BARC week 43: Sony SAB gains top position in urban market

MUMBAI: In week 43 of BARC India ratings, Sony SAB has emerged as the top player in the urban market. The channel has moved up to the top position on the pay platform as well. Sony Network's other Hindi GEC Sony Entertainment Television slipped down to the second position after continuously leading in the urban market for the four consecutive weeks. In week 43, Star Plus has retained its third position in the urban market.

In urban market Sony SAB, Sony Entertainment Television, Star Plus, Colors, Zee TV, Dangal, Star Bharat, Big Magic, &TV, and Star Utsav were seen at first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth positions respectively.

Week 43: Saturday, 19th October 2019 to Friday, 25th October 2019

Rank	Channel Name	Weekly Impressions (000s) sum
		Week 43
1	SONY SAB	455395
2	Sony Entertainment Television	445393
3	STAR Plus	412642
4	Colors	376653
5	Zee TV	360329
6	Dangal	240447
7	STAR Bharat	191474
8	Big Magic	103927
9	&TV	100007
10	STAR Utsav	91765
HSM (Urban) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals

On pay platform, Sony SAB, Zee TV, Star Plus, Sony Entertainment Television, Colors, Star Bharat, Dangal, Colors Rishtey, Star Utsav and Sony Pal were the top ten channels.

Week 43: Saturday, 19th October 2019 to Friday, 25th October 2019

Rank	Channel Name	Weekly Impressions (000s) sum
		Week 43
1	SONY SAB	674837
2	Zee TV	660866
3	STAR Plus	638852
4	Sony Entertainment Television	612438
5	Colors	541843
6	STAR Bharat	292655
7	Dangal	224239
8	Colors Rishtey	173181
9	STAR Utsav	159421
10	Sony Pal	145745
HSM (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals,

Dangal, Big Magic, Manoranjan Grand, DD National, DD Bharati, DD Uttar Pradesh , DD Arunprabha, , DD Rajasthan and DD Madhya Pradesh were the top nine channels on free platform.

Week 43: Saturday, 19th October 2019 to Friday, 25th October 2019

Rank	Channel Name	Weekly Impressions (000s) sum
		Week 43
1	Dangal	825128
2	Big Magic	411175
3	Manoranjan Grand	72147
4	DD National	66978
5	DD Bharati	7139
6	DD Uttar Pradesh	3175
7	DD Arunprabha	2298
8	DD Rajasthan	1521
9	DD Madhya Pradesh	1368
HSM (U+R) : NCCS All : 2+ Individuals

Dangal, Big magic, Zee TV, Star Plus, Sony SAB, Sony Entertainment Television, Colors, Star Bharat, Colors Rishtey and Sony Pal were the top ten channels in rural space while the last one was not in the top ten list of BARC week 42 data.

Week 43: Saturday, 19th October 2019 to Friday, 25th October 2019

Rank	Channel Name	Weekly Impressions (000s) sum
		Week 43
1	Dangal	808920
2	Big Magic	373353
3	Zee TV	301863
4	STAR Plus	227601
5	SONY SAB	223110
6	Sony Entertainment Television	168567
7	Colors	166491
8	STAR Bharat	101820
9	Colors Rishtey	96124
10	Sony Pal	76024
HSM (Rural) : NCCS All : 2+ Individual

November 5, 2019

BARC exhorts TRAI to strengthen existing TV audience measurement system

MUMBAI: Broadcast Audience Research Council India (BARC), the country’s premier TV audience data measurer, has suggested to the Indian regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) that having more multiple measurement and ratings mechanisms may not be “advisable” and could create confusion. Instead, it was better to invest further in the existing currency with the goal to make it more robust.

“Having more than one ratings service/currency would not be in the interests of industry, and, hence is not desirable. Instead of increasing number of ratings agencies, it would be advisable to invest in the existing system and make it even more robust and accurate,” BARC India has said in its submission to a consultation paper on TV audience measurement overhaul floated by the TRAI.

Making a case to further boost the functioning of BARC India, the organisation has said steps were needed to be taken to “increase the sample/panel through cost effective technologies” like sample return path data (SRPD).

“TV viewership measurement systems across most mature markets are carried out by a single agency. The existence of more than one rating agencies (and currency) will create confusion and will lead to inefficiency in the market. When there are more than one data sets for a same set of channels, it leads to ambiguity,” BARC India has argued.

TRAI had floated a consultation paper on ‘Review of Television Audience Measurement and Ratings in India’ on 3 December 2018 seeking feedback from stakeholders with a view to examine various aspects of the system, which is presently done by BARC India that is a joint venture amongst three industry organisations — the Indian Broadcasting Foundation (IBF), Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI) and the Indian Society of Advertisers (ISA). The original deadline for making submissions was extended on request from the stakeholders.

Arguing against promoting more competition in the audience measurement eco-system, BARC India has cited international media reports relating to this particular issue in the Philippines.
“Philippines presents a typical example of confusion and ambiguity in market due to presence of more than one measurement agency. TV measurement in the Philippines is conducted by Kantar Media Philippines and AGB Nielsen Media Research Philippines. Data produced by the two companies are often used by competing channels to claim leadership,” BARC India has argued.

Pointing out that accuracy of data can be ensured through larger panel that can, inter alia, be sustained by industry, BARC India has tried to put things in context by highlighting the US TV industry sustains a panel of 108900 individuals with a TV adex of $68 billion, while in India BARC India “runs a panel of 135,000 individuals with adex of approximately $4 billion”.

However, for a more robust system to be in place, which will also strengthen BARC India, the organisation has said “regulatory and government support” was essential and the support should involve “mandating digital platform operators (DTH and cable), as well as TV OEM manufacturers (of smart TV sets), to share return path data from samples to measurement provider”.

“To make data more accurate, there are steps required that go beyond the remit and domain of BARC. Legal and punitive framework to weed out panel tampering will go a long way in building further acceptance of our data,” BARC India has stated, reiterating its position on been backed by some legal teeth to fight attempts of data infiltrations and manipulation.

While admitting that a high-tech landscape like audience measurement needed to constantly evolve as newer consumption and distribution modes and technologies were emerging (for example, digital consumption, proliferation of OTT platforms, etc), BARC India has made it clear it was exploring SRPD, second generation metre with newer detection techniques, and other technological solutions for TV measurement.

“BARC India has also made progress in building capability to measure digital consumption with the goal of providing industry with cross platform and cross device video consumption: linear and time shifted, broadcast and digital. We have a strong foundation, established credibility and necessary transparency and accountability framework on which we can build further with emerging and suitable technologies,” the measurement organisation stated.

February 21, 2019
Civolution to provide watermarking technology to BARC

MUMBAI: Civolution, a Netherlands-based provider of technology and solutions for identifying, managing and monetising content has announced that the Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) has contracted it to provide its watermarking technology to underpin one of the world’s largest audience measurement platforms.

The announcement comes shortly after BARC chose the TV meter system of Mediametrie, the audience measurement and survey company for television, radio, cinema and the internet. The two companies will build the technology framework for audience measurement solution for BARC.

BARC addresses a population of over 1 billion, of which over 600 million have access to television in some form. This will be the first fully digital audience measurement system employed directly by the Indian broadcasters, advertisers and ad agencies and is scheduled to commence operations towards the end of this year.

The audience measurement system – which has already successfully been deployed by Mediametrie in multiple TV markets – relies on Civolution’s audio watermarking coding technology for automated content identification and integrates seamlessly into Mediametrie’s TV meter system for panellists’ equipment and panellists’ data processing. It provides broadcasters with a detailed analysis of their exposure to the public, whether by the number of households tuning in to the programme or the amount of time spent watching each piece of content.

“India has one of the largest TV audiences in the world so it was critical for us to create an audience measurement system that is gold standard,” said BARC CEO Partho Dasgupta. “By leveraging Civolution and Mediametrie’s expertise in audience tracking, technology and analytics we can now study viewers’ TV habits in precise detail, enabling broadcasters and advertisers to implement efficient strategies to reach their target audience.”

Civolution’s audio watermark is embedded in the TV’s sound track prior to broadcast. Upon airing, the content is then identified by Mediametrie’s TV meter, in real-time. In addition to granular measurement of the content being watched, the solution features support for catch-up TV. The technology provides cross-platform audience measurement and will enable mobile device measurement, triggering the creation of new services and the reduction of operating costs. In parallel, the same watermark infrastructure deployed by Indian broadcasters could be used to synchronize with great accuracy their own interactive second screen applications.

”With so many new ways of watching TV content in this multi-screen universe, precise audience measurement has become increasingly complex. Audience measurement services must now report more accurately and reliably, from a larger number of channels, delivered through a fast-changing and diverse mix of broadcast platforms, and consumed either in real time or time-shifted” said Civolution CEO Alex Terpstra.

”Through our close collaboration with Mediametrie, we have devised a powerful solution that provides accurate and reliable audience data that will allow BARC to help broadcasters plan, entertain and monetize their TV audiences,” added Civolution SVP Watermarking Solutions Jean Michel Masson.

Mediametrie Director of Audiences Measurement Benoit Cassaigne added: ”We are very enthusiastic to embark on this project with Civolution and its watermarking technology, which is definitely the most powerful and error-free content detection technique available for TV audience measurement. This means we are future-proofed in the fast-changing world of TV. Mediametrie has relied on Civolution’s technology for many years.”

February 25, 2014