Nielsen announces “Impressions First Initiative” and the Integration of Broadband Only Homes Into Local Measurement in January 2022

Nielsen announced that it will take the lead on an “Impressions First Initiative” to support an industrywide move to impressions-based buying and selling in local markets across the U.S.  The move to impressions will occur in conjunction with the integration of broadband only (BBO) homes into Nielsen’s local measurement metrics in January 2022. The move to an impressions-based currency will deliver a more complete, precise and representative audience measurement, along with the added benefit of enabling cross-platform audience measurement. In today’s fragmented media landscape, the move to impressions lays the groundwork for implementing Nielsen ONE across local, national and digital measurement.

The inclusion of BBO homes will enable the industry to rapidly transition to trading on impressions. Impressions represent all viewers regardless of platform—which is especially important given the significant and growing penetration of BBO homes in local markets. For more than two years, Nielsen has been working with the media and advertising industries in preparation for the inclusion of BBO homes in local TV measurement for its 56 LPM and set meter markets.

“Nielsen is committed to measuring all audiences and the complete video consumption across the local marketplace,” said David Kenny, CEO of Nielsen. “Impressions are the great equalizer across all screens, programs, listeners and viewers. Nielsen’s move to prioritize reporting impressions will help standardize the way it measures ads and content, enabling greater comparability across national, local and digital and is in line with Nielsen’s initiative to drive comparable metrics which are foundational to Nielsen ONE.”