“We are pleased to invest in Nielsen, a market-leading company that is deeply embedded in the media ecosystem as a trusted service provider to its customers,” said Dave Gregory, managing partner of Brookfield. “Nielsen is well positioned to lead the industry into the next generation of audience measurement across all channels and platforms.”
The sale comes just a few weeks ahead of the TV “upfronts,” where historically major broadcast networks would pitch their new programming to advertisers and media buyers. This year’s upfronts are also expected to have a heavy focus on streaming, with companies like Disney, NBCUniversal and Paramount making ad-supported streaming a top corporate priority.
Nielsen ratings are used as the measurement “currency” for broadcast TV and cable networks, including Paramount Network Nielsen had been the gold standard of TV measurement for decades, with its TV panel ratings long serving as the “currency” for TV advertising, the metric that advertisers, media buyers and networks agree represents viewership of a given TV show.