Nielsen Out-of-Home Data Released this Summer

In a first for Nielsen, the company will begin offering data on out-of-home television viewing later this summer (delayed from its earlier launch date of April). The Nielsen Out-of-Home Report is a joint venture with Integrated Media Measurement Inc., and will offer measurement of viewing in bars, hotels, gyms and airports.

The data is pulled from 4,700 panelists who carry cell phones from AT&T that run software that allows tracking of the exposure to programs, according to MediaPost.The Out-of-Home Report is a national service, but Nielsen will also begin offering out-of-home measurement on six markets by the end of the third quarter: New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston and Denver. The local markets will have panels with 500 members each.

Nielsen says that about 8 percent of television viewing takes place out-of-home, and networks have long argued that they don’t receive credit from advertisers for such viewing. If the networks are able to combine out-of-home data with typical television ratings, they could potentially persuade advertisers to pay for the ratings lift. MediaPost points out that the scenario would likely be very beneficial to sports programming, as consumption in bars is high.

Out-of-home networks have been growing exponentially in the past year or so and will continue to do so.  Growth in the outdoor advertising sector as a whole will rank second only to internet advertising in ad spending growth, and will total $2.25 billion in the U.S. in 2011, up from $1.26 billion in 2007, according to eMarketer analysis. Out-of-home video advertising networks will comprise the largest component of the “alternative” out-of-home advertising sector.