Within marketing research, big data is often described as being “census” data for the population that it represents. The devil is in the details and when we take a closer look we can see that this isn’t the case. There are many situations that are not captured within the population that big data purports to be a census of. Big data isn’t even a census of itself since it’s not uncommon for records to be excluded either by accident during the collection process or by design in the cleaning processor. Unfortunately, our industry is so enamored with the size of big data that some users of data are willing to trade off precision for tonnage. Fortunately, if the shortcomings of big data are understood and corrected it can accurately represent the population that it measures in the correct proportion to the universe. We will discuss a method that Nielsen has developed called “Common Homes” that is designed to identify and correct the shortcomings of big data sets that represent media consumption.

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NIELSEN
Making Big Data Smart
PROPRIETARY & CONFIDENTIAL
N
S
EW

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Topics of Conversation
The Nielsen Panel
Big Data – What it isn’t
Nielsen Common Homes
Ensuring Quality Measurement

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Nielsen National People Meter Homes

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Nielsen National People Meter
• 40,000+ homes, 100,000+
persons
• Homes can be in the panel up to 2
years
• Electronically measures both what
the set is tuned to and who is
watching
• Each household member assigned
a button (additional buttons
available for visitors)

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Nielsen Meters
Nielsen’s Global Television Audience Meter
(GTAM)
• Next generation metering platform
• Meets the challenges of digital media
• Adapts to a varied home viewing environment
Scrolling Text People Meter (STPM)
• Allows for dynamic prompts
• Supports multiple languages
GTAM
GTAM Lite
Code Reader
Scrolling Text
People Meter

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WHAT BIG DATA ISN’T

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Measurement relies on COMPLETE MARKET COVERAGE, which means
all geographies, all population segments & all types of viewing environments
Nielsen Panel
DESIGNED FOR MEASUREMENT
Big Data
NOT A CENSUS
Big Data Isn’t a Census of the Market

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NOT ALL TVs HAVE SET-TOP
BOXES
NOT ALL SET-TOP BOXES ARE
RETURN PATH CAPABLE
DOES NOT CAPTURE ALL
ACTIVITY AT THE VIEWING SITE
THE SCOPE OF AVAILABLE DATA
VARIES BY PROVIDER
SET TOP BOX DATA IS NOT “PLUG
AND PLAY” INTO TELEVISION
RATINGS
SET TOP BOX DATA
Tuning data that cable and
satellite providers can collect
from their subscribers’ set-
top boxes
Big Data Isn’t a Census of Itself

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STB HUT Rating LPM HUT Rating
STB IS ON
TV IS ON
SPIKES ARE PRIME TIME
Panels are essential to model on/off across all the different RPD boxes
STB Data Isn’t Necessarily Viewing

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Big Data Home
GENDER
EDUCATION INCOME
PRESENCE
OF CHILDREN
LANGUAGE
SPOKEN
OCCUPATION
ETHNICITY
# TV SETS # SMARTPHONES# TABLETS
AGE
PHONE
/INTERNET
PROVIDER
VISITORS
GAME CONSOLES SVOD VOD
MARITAL
STATUS
Big Data Doesn’t Have Demographics
% CLASSIFIED CORRECTLY BY THIRD PARTY
HOUSEHOLDS WITH…
Persons Age 18-34
Persons Age 35-54
Hispanic
HH Size 1
HH Size 2
HH Size 4+57.7%
70.6%
59.9%
14.1%
28.4%
49.9%
27% OF THIRD-PARTY MATCHED
HOUSEHOLDS ARE MISSING KEY
CHARACTERISTICS

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Big Data Doesn’t Know Who’s Viewing?
Fiel
d
Rep
GAME
CONSOLE
ROKU

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CORRECTED INPUT DATA
Source: Nielsen Common Homes, May 2016
Includes all Reportable Networks and Stations for the May 2016 NSI Measurement Period
Network and Station Crediting – Time-Shifted Viewing
74% ENTITIES CORRECTLY IDENTIFIED BEFORE NIELSEN FIXES
ENTITIES CORRECTLY IDENTIFIED AFTER NIELSEN FIXES 96%
ONLY HIGH-QUALITY PANELS CAN UNCOVER THESE ERRORS

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NIELSEN COMMON HOMES
DETERMINE THE ACCURACY OF BIG DATA SOURCES
SIDE-BY-SIDE COMPARISON: PANEL SERVES AS TRUTH SET
CORRECT INACCURACIES: IN HOUSE OR VIA DATA PROVIDER
PERFORM PANEL MATCH FOR EACH PROVIDER, ON ONGOING BASIS

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NIELSEN PANEL HOME

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NIELSEN PANEL HOME
SET TOP BOX DATA
NIELSEN METER DATA
SAME HOME/SAME TVs

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NIELSEN PANEL HOME
SET TOP BOX DATA
NIELSEN METER DATA
X
SIDE-BY-SIDE COMP

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COMPLETE HOUSEHOLD CHARACTERISTICS
Source: Nielsen Panel Homes, May 2016
Enhancing and Correcting Third Party Data
THIRD PARTY DATA ALLOWS US TO ASSIGN HOUSEHOLD CHARACTERISTICS…BUT IT ISN’T
PERFECT
? ? ?
27% OF THIRD-PARTY
MATCHED HOUSEHOLDS
ARE MISSING KEY
CHARACTERISTICS

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FULL MARKET REPRESENTATION
RATINGS BASED ON RETURN-PATH DATA ONLY ARE INCOMPLETE
NOT ALL SET-TOP-
BOXES RETURN
DATA
RETURNED DATA ALONE DOES NOT
COVER ALL AUDIENCES
WHY DOES THIS MATTER?
THERE ARE IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HOMES THAT
RETURN DATA AND THOSE THAT DO NOT

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FULL MARKET REPRESENTATION
Source: Nielsen Panel Homes, May 2016
19%
MORE LIKELY TO
EARN $75,000+
10%
LESS LIKELY TO BE
HISPANIC
18%
MORE LIKELY TO
HAVE A COLLEGE
DEGREE
RPD-CAPABLE HOMES ARE
RATINGS BASED ON UNADJUSTED RETURN-PATH DATA
DO NOT ACCOUNT FOR ALL AUDIENCES

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FULL MARKET REPRESENTATION
Source: Nielsen Panel Homes, May 2016
Implications for Ratings
1.1 1.9
1.2 0.3
1.3 1.2
NON-RPD HOMES RPD HOMES
AFFILIATE A
AFFILIATE B
AFFILIATE C
RPD-ONLY RATINGS ARE
INCOMPLETE
A HIGH-QUALITY PANEL ALLOWS
NIELSEN TO ADJUST TO THE TOTAL
MARKET

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ENSURING QUALITY MEASUREMENT
END-TO-END COMMITMENT TO QUALITY
BIG DATA PLUS A HIGH-QUALITY, GOLD-STANDARD PANEL
RESULTS IN RETURN-PATH DATA DONE RIGHT
CORRECT & COMPLETE
HOUSEHOLD
CHARACTERISTICS
CORRECTED INPUT
DATA
PERSONS-LEVEL
ESTIMATES
FULL MARKET
COVERAGE

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