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Nielsen has announced that it is now offering the industry a syndicated solution to independently measure subscription-based streaming content. 

With the commercial release of Nielsen Subscription Video On Demand (SVOD) Content Ratings, eight major television networks and production studios, including A&E Networks, Disney-ABC, Lionsgate, NBCUniversal, Warner Brothers and three others not revealed by Nielsen, have signed on to the service.

Nielsen began measuring streamed content in 2014 via an opt-in service. The new service enhances its video on demand (VOD) Content Ratings framework, which leverages the demographic and household characteristic data of the Nielsen National TV Panel to identify viewing of these programmes.

Nielsen is offering subscribers a more comprehensive view of their content’s total audience regardless of where it was viewed — and the ability to follow the full lifecycle of a programme from live to time-shifted viewing, to set-top-box video on-demand, and now SVOD. According to Nielsen, as SVOD originated programmes re-enter the traditional television ecosystem, an established track record of their audience profiles will already exist. The company says that new insights will empower content owners and networks with real data into what was previously a significant and expanding blind spot of consumer behaviour. 

Nielsen’s new SVOD Content Ratings solution also provides measurement of programmes at the season and episode level in a manner comparable to linear television data — including ratings, reach, frequency and segmentation reporting — as a way for clients and the industry to better understand where this content fits in the larger media ecosystem.

“The significant growth of SVOD services in entertainment markets across the world has created demand from rights owners to understand the size and composition of audiences relative to other programs and platforms,” Megan Clarken, president of watch for Nielsen, said. “The syndication of SVOD measurement as part of Nielsen’s Total Audience offerings represents a big step forward in terms of moving closer to transparency within the SVOD marketplace.”