Nielsen and VIZIO announced a multi-year agreement that provides Nielsen with precise glass-level viewership data powered by Inscape Smart TV data. The deal includes a period of exclusivity for data gathered on an expanded roster of 400 local stations that will be processed around the clock by Inscape's systems. Nielsen, which licensed Inscape for national addressable measurement starting in 2021, now has the rights from VIZIO to integrate Inscape data in both its local and national audience measurement solutions. Through this agreement, Nielsen can now add big data from a pool of approximately 20 million Smart TVs, a key enhancement that includes incremental coverage for 400 stations across local U.S. markets that currently include Local People Meter, Set Meter and Portable People Meter panels.

VIZIO's Inscape data captures viewing data from millions of connected TV devices (including cable box, set top box, DVR, etc.) and streaming environments. ACR data provides scale, granularity and timely insights, enabling greater understanding of what is being watched in millions of U.S. households by measuring content on the TV glass, regardless of source. Nielsen's panels will be used to validate what is missing in big data sets, including complete representation, over-the-air inclusion, validation of diverse representation, understanding when the TV is on or off, and persons-level measurement.

Nielsen will be launching big data into its national TV measurement beginning in September, a major step towards the launch of Nielsen ONE, the forthcoming single, deduplicated solution for cross-media measurement.