Nielsen co-viewing experiment adds 4% to major February sportscasts

Nielsen is continuing to develop new ways to find viewers that have not traditionally been captured in its samples.

The company’s newest experiment is designed to better capture “co-viewing,” industry parlance for when several people watch a telecast together in the same room. While Nielsen’s co-viewing measurements are still in the pilot phase and thus are not yet included in official top-line viewership figures, it seems a near certainty that, if and when they are added, they will boost overall audience figures for live sports compared to prior years.

As part of its pilot program, Nielsen measured Super Bowl LX, the Olympic Opening and Closing Ceremonies, the NBA All-Star Game, the Daytona 500, the Olympic Gold Medal Hockey Game, and the State of the Union Address using its new co-viewing methodology. Across those events, co-viewing added 4.19% to total viewership, per an announcement by Nielsen on Tuesday.

If so, that addition is in line with other methodological changes Nielsen has implemented in recent years. Generally speaking, Nielsen’s addition of out-of-home viewership measurements in 2020 (and further expansion in 2025) has increased live sports audiences by about 10-15% compared to previous years. Further, the recent introduction of the Big Data sample has typically increased audiences for live sports by about 5% compared to previous years, though Big Data measurements can fluctuate by sport, occasionally even reducing viewership for certain properties.

Should Nielsen eventually add this new co-viewing measurement to the equation, we can expect yet another bump in overall viewership figures compared with previous years, further muddying historical comparisons.

“Our Co-Viewing pilot exemplifies our unwavering commitment to providing the most accurate measurement for our clients during these dynamic times of change,” Nielsen CEO Karthik Rao said in the announcement. “In the past year alone, we’ve made continued enhancements to our ratings to better reflect the power of live TV in reaching massive audiences.”

While it’s true that these changes might result in more accurate viewership measurements, they create a challenging environment for broadcasters and advertisers who transact on Nielsen’s data.

But when Nielsen’s biggest clients, like the NFL, are pressuring the company to continue finding viewership between the proverbial couch cushions, there’s not much of a choice. Either keep updating your methodology in ways that boost viewership, historical comparisons be damned, or risk losing your status as the gold standard of the television business.

It’s an easy choice for Nielsen.