Nielsen and Fox television stations renew local television ratings agreement

Nielsen and Fox television stations renew local television ratings agreement

New York, NY – March 22, 2017 – Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) has announced today that it has signed a long-term renewal agreement with FOX Television Stations (FTS) for audience measurement services. As part of the agreement, FTS licenses Nielsen’s Local Television ratings across all of the group’s 28 stations, in 17 designated market areas (DMA), including the Charlotte FOX O&O WJZY/WMYT, which was not in the previous agreement. FOX Station Sales, their national sales representative group, is also part of the renewal agreement.

By extending its relationship with Nielsen, FOX’s owned-and-operated stations and national sales representative group can demonstrate their advertising and market value to marketers by leveraging currency measurement that provide breadth and depth into local audiences. The agreement includes Nielsen’s announced plans to enrich its Local TV panels with data from its Portable People MeterTM technology and set-top-boxes, delivering significantly larger sample sizes and driving increased ratings fidelity. Out-of-home audience will also be included for the first time in local measurement.

The investments that Nielsen is making to Local TV are part of its overall strategy to deliver all-electronic measurement across all 210 DMA. This effort combines Nielsen's gold-standard panels with the strength of big data sources to provide Local TV clients like FTS with stable and accurate data that help them better compete in the marketplace.

“FOX continues to be at the forefront of delivering valuable local content to its viewers,” said Jeff Wender, Managing Director for Nielsen Local Media. “This strategic agreement builds on the long-term relationship and mutual respect that exist between FOX Television Stations Group and Nielsen. We are excited to deliver an enhanced local measurement portfolio for more strategic decision making and increased ROI to advertisers.”

About Nielsen

Nielsen Holdings plc (NYSE: NLSN) is a global performance management company that provides a comprehensive understanding of what consumers watch and buy. Nielsen's Watch segment provides media and advertising clients with Nielsen Total Audience measurement services for all devices on which content—video, audio and text—is consumed. The Buy segment offers consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers the industry's only global view of retail performance measurement. By integrating information from its Watch and Buy segments and other data sources, Nielsen also provides its clients with analytics that help improve performance. Nielsen, an S&P 500 company, has operations in over 100 countries, covering more than 90% of the world’s population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

About Fox Television Stations

FOX Television Stations is one of the nation's largest owned-and-operated network broadcast groups, comprising 28 stations in 17 markets and covering over 37% of U.S. television homes. This includes seven duopolies in the top 10 markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Houston; as well as duopolies in Minneapolis, Phoenix, Orlando and Charlotte.