Fox Sports has signed up for Nielsen’s National Out-of-Home reporting service, which counts people watching ballgames on TV in bars, hotels and other locations.
The ratings lift a game can get by adding out-of-home viewers can be significant. Nielsen says Fox NFL regular season games saw a 16% lift from out-of-home viewing last season.
Fox, ESPN and some other TV companies are negotiating to add out-of-home viewers to the eyeballs they sell to advertisers in the current upfront market. ESPN was the first to subscribe to the Nielsen out-of-home reporting service.
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The multi-year agreement covers Fox Sports on broadcast, FS1, FS2 and Fox Deportes with program and commercial ratings ranging from live to live-plus-7 days of delayed viewing.
“Sports are being watched everywhere, every day and on every type of screen. Our business has to keep pace with changes in viewer behavior,” said Eric Shanks, president, chief operating officer and executive producer at Fox Sports. “Nielsen’s out-of-home measurement enables us to measure our audience wherever they may be, which in turn allows us to better service the advertising industry.”
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Fox Sports and its networks will receive weekly reports that include daily data for program and commercial audience estimates. The out-of-home viewing data will be derived from Nielsen’s Portable People Meter (PPM) technology and combined with national TV ratings.
“Fox Sports has some of the most exciting and fan-favorite sporting events and we are thrilled to extend our relationship by providing them with out-of-home measurement that demonstrates their incremental audience,” said Lynda Clarizio, president, Nielsen U.S. Media. “We are committed to providing our clients with a complete view of their total audience regardless of where consumers are viewing their content. Our out-of-home measurement service is another piece of Nielsen Total Audience delivering to subscribing clients richer and more robust insights into their viewers, as well as helping to uncover new and valuable audience segments.”
