Nielsen is leaning more on wearables to hear what people are watching

Today, Nielsen announced “a number of key enhancements” that are being added to its data capturing process ahead of the upcoming fall TV season. As of August 31st, Nielsen’s co-viewing data will now include information obtained from smart-watch like gadgets that Neilsen’s research panelists wear in their homes. The Portable People Meter (PPM) Wearables — which Nielsen first began deploying nationally in 2016 to bolster its audio, local TV, and national audience measurements — are meant to be worn on the wrist while listening for audio from TV scenes, series, and films. The company says that users wearing the devices won’t need to go through the typical Nielsen log in process, and it believes that incorporating this technology into its processes will give it a better idea “of how many people are watching a given program.”

Building on its decision from earlier this year to adopt the Advertising Research Foundation’s (ARF) Device and Account Sharing (DASH) data into its methodology, Nielsen will use new DASH estimates that are based on more recent survey data. The company will also use data from two additional surveys in order to better estimate how many Spanish-speaking households are in its pool of panel participants. Nielsen is also updating the machine learning tool it uses to process information from data providers to assess the demographic makeup of individual households, which means. The firm noted that this last update should help “ensure the data is more representative and does not artificially skew toward older residents.”

Each of these new features makes it sound like Nielsen is taking even more stops to maintain its position as the industry standard for ratings capture at the time when people’s viewing habits have become much more fractured. The company also has to contend with the way the rise of streaming makes it difficult to accurately assess what people are watching. Being asked to keep Nielsen’s proprietary devices in their homes is nothing new for the company’s panel participants, but the push to wear listening wearables could strike some as a bit intrusive. But if this all really does lead to Nielsen capturing more reliable information, other firms might follow its example.