Seen any good ads lately? Don’t lie. In all likelihood, you have.
For as much as we may be in love with the narrative that in a world of infinite entertainment options we’ve discovered the Holy Grail of personalized curation that would allow us to eschew those tacky distractions, once again it falls on the broad shoulders of the Luddite third party measurement platform called Nielsen to be the adult in the room. And not a moment too soon, given that yesterday was the kickoff to what has now become the Upfront Fortnight, with four back-to-back schmoozefests from the so-called NewFront interlopers, which included Google, Vizio and LinkedIn. Tomorrow we get five more, including one actual video platform (Tubi), and Wednesday will see no less than 20 presentations from publishers, measurers and yes, even a couple more places where folks can see shows.
And because it’s once again a crucial crossroads time for the industry as a whole, in particular the vertically integrated companies that have traditionally dominated what used to be a condensed four-day week, it was a most opportunistic time for Nielsen to fill what was an apparent narrative void that will hopefully remind the client side that no matter what convenient narrative may emerge from their monthly gauges that reinforce the fact that YouTube and Netflix rise to the top of the charts, upon further review they still represent only a fraction of the total video landscape. And the majority of it includes commercials.
Last week a third iteration of the Gauge made its debut, trumpeted this time by the big boss, as THE DESK’s Matthew Keys dutifully reported:
Nearly three-quarters of all time spent with television during the first three months of the year took place on ad-supported platforms across traditional and streaming TV platforms, according to a new report released by Nielsen on Thursday.
The report, called the Ad Supported Gauge, examines the amount of time spent with ad-supported TV during a quarterly period, the measurement firm said. The aim of the Ad Supported Gauge is to give advertisers and agencies greater insight into the reach of ad-supported platforms. “Every day our clients use our data to make informed decisions about their business. As we head into the Upfront, this ad supported layer to our industry defining Gauge report provides deeper levels of analysis to help guide advertising strategies,” Karthik Rao, the CEO of Nielsen, said in a statement.
Geez, if the $16 billion man is putting his imprinteur on a statement, it’s gotta be a big deal. But if you were expecting something that would rival its two sister reports, the OG Gauge and the Media Distributor iteration, in frequency and detail, sorry to tell you at least for now that’s not gonna happen. THE WRAP’s Lucas Manfredi explained that in his story from late last week:
The new insights, which are being released on a quarterly basis and launched ahead of media giants’ upfront presentations, reveal that 72.4% of total TV viewing was on ad-supported platforms in the first quarter of 2025, compared to 27.6% for ad-free platforms.
Cable and broadcast made up roughly 28.9% and 28.7% of ad-supported viewing, respectively, while streaming accounted for the remaining 42.4%. Though the new report does not currently break out the streaming category by platform, Nielsen plans to do so at a later date.
In effect, this is little more than a cutback study, something Nielsen has provided for clients seeking to do creative storytelling for decades. What those percentages represent is how much the old schoolers still matter in the sector which advertisers have access to. If one contrasts those numbers to the 1Q25 averages for the traditional Gauge, you’ll observe that streaming’s share is roughly equal in the ad-supported world (42.4% vs. 43.3%), while cable (28.9% vs. 23.9%) and broadcast (28.7% vs. 21.4) essentially divvy up the 11.8% labeled as “other” on a 40-ish/60-ish split.
And since it’s the debut of this particular lens, there’s no negative story that can be immediately discerned about the erosion of linear TV over time–unlike the one that the OG Gauge clearly told in its most recent report.
And yep, Nielsen will be among those 20 presenters going all day tomorrow, reiterating this pretty new picture and also amplifying another more specialized product that Manfredi reported has already gotten some traction:
In addition to its new Ad-Supported Gauge, Nielsen is launching a new capability that will allow buyers and sellers to track connected TV ad spend across all major streaming platforms alongside linear TV and digital. At launch, it will cover 41 streaming platforms representing measurement for more than 95% of the U.S. connected TV market, including all major streaming apps. The firm also struck new audience and cross-platform measurement agreements with GroupM, Vayner Media and Ocean Media.
These are among the more active and stingy negotiators out there, and with Nielsen only providing a view from 30,000 feet it’s up to the presenters to figure out how to incorporate it to their advantage–if at all. There are ways to do so, some fairly simple calculations to spin a narrative, and for the ones making the big presentations next week they’ve got a whole week to work overtime and run a bunch of custom reports against the newly created subset. For entities with staffs still large enough–or facile enough with AI–to do that, they can certainly score some points with the likes of those smarty-pants that are finding a few spare bucks to throw Nielsen’s way.
Swag and swagger only go so far.
Until next time…