Nielsen and Amazon ink three-year deal to measure NFL Thursday Night Football

The agreement marks the first time a streaming service has been included in Nielsen’s National TV measurement service, with promises of “apples-to-apples comparisons across their multi-channel media investments”.

by Sarah Dennis 17 August 2022

Amazon and Nielsen have signed a three-year deal to measure Amazon’s Prime Video’s exclusive screenings of NFL Thursday Night Football.

The agreement marks the first time a streaming service has been included in Nielsen’s National TV measurement service with one of its live programmes.

Kicking off with the 2022 NFL season, measurement will encompass full coverage of the Thursday Night Football broadcast on Prime Video and Twitch, alongside out-of-home viewing over-the-air stations in the featured teams’ local markets each week.

The measurement will cover:

Pregame;
In-game; and
Postgame programming

Continued trending and comparability

Thursday Night Football on Amazon will be measured using Nielsen’s panel so the same metrics can be applied across all other national networks for continued trending and comparability.

Nielsen will begin measuring Thursday Night Football on Amazon over the pregame on 25 August, with the San Francisco 49ers pitted against the Houston Texans. Amazon's exclusive 15-game TNF regular season slate kicks off mid September when the Los Angeles Chargers take on the Kansas City Chiefs.

Across the coverage, 29 of the NFL's 32 clubs will appear on Thursday Night Football this season, concluding on 29 December with Tennessee Titans versus the Dallas Cowboys.

According to Nielsen's ratings, NFL games and the pregame and postgame accounted for the top 27 live telecasts in 2021, and 47 of the top 50.

Srishti Gupta, Director of Media Measurement, Amazon Ads, said. “We are looking forward to delivering a new viewing experience and offering brands new ways to connect with current and future fans. Our collaboration with Nielsen will allow us to provide advertisers with familiar campaign measurement to make apples-to-apples comparisons across their multi-channel media investments.

“Additionally, advertisers will have access to metrics from Amazon that will provide actionable insights to understand brand awareness, engagement, and sales. This powerful combination of first and third-party measurement is something only Amazon can provide."

Deirdre Thomas, Managing Director, US Audience Measurement Product Sales at Nielsen, added: "We are committed to delivering comparable, comprehensive measurement of all audiences, across all platforms, and this agreement to measure TNF viewership is a testament to that.”