Streaming Reached All-Time High in January: Nielsen CEO

Every major change to expand audience measurement, including adding cable to broadcast in the 1990s and adding delayed DVR viewing in 2006, “has been met with resistance and headlines,” said Nielsen CEO David Kenny on a Q4 earnings call Monday. The current move to “reconcile” streaming and linear TV “is perhaps the biggest change in the history of media,” he said. “Friction can be expected, and we are seeing it.” Nielsen data showed streaming reached an all-time high in January, at 38% of viewing within the 18 to 54 age demographic, he said. Kenny admits “there is more noise on the traditional TV side as our clients adjust their business models from linear to streaming,” he said. “But privately, the conversations we have with clients and their contracts with us show that our business with them is much more productive than the noise suggests.”