The news: Just before the 2025 NFL season kicked off, the league’s chief data and analytics officer Paul Ballew assailed Nielsen’s measurement approach, telling The Wall Street Journal that “there are millions of viewers that we believe they are systematically undercounting.”
Nielsen countered that it was “confident this will be the most accurately rated football season in history,” and cited its deep ties with the NFL.
The old guard: Nielsen is still the dominant player in TV measurement, but a flurry of competitors have emerged in recent years—and they’re largely considered to be effective (see chart). The criticism from the NFL—whose games are often the most-watched events on linear TV—puts a magnifying glass on the company’s efforts to revamp its measurement for the digital era.
- Earlier this year, Nielsen launched its “Big Data + Panel” measurement product, combining its legacy set-top boxes with digital signals covering 45 million homes. Nielsen framed the yearslong buildup to Big Data + Panel’s launch as a modernization that helped it better compete with newer rivals.
- But Ballew criticized Big Data + Panel’s lack of first-party data from streaming services offering NFL games, which he said would result in undercounted viewership. In response, Nielsen said it is working with the NFL and several streamers to integrate first-party data.
- Nielsen has tried to integrate first-party streaming data before. In 2023, the company reversed plans to integrate Prime Video data in what would have been a first-of-its-kind move after other streaming services, networks, and industry groups cried foul. The company has since changed course and is working again to strike those partnerships, but integration may come later than the NFL and broadcasters would like.
Our take: As the dominant measurement firm, Nielsen will likely be able to forge partnerships with a host of streaming services and sports leagues to integrate first-party data. Efforts already underway at the company are addressing Ballew’s criticism, but his public comments signal growing frustration with Nielsen’s slow progress in updating its measurement model.