​NBCUniversal Cable is joining FX, HBO, and Showtime in ditching Live + same day ratings numbers in favor of the broader Live + 3 numbers, the company announced Thursday.

In a world of time-shifting and on-demand platforms, the cable group sees the old data as an increasingly inaccurate reflection of a show’s true audience.

“L+SD is merely a chapter in a much larger and more diverse ratings story,” said Liz Mahaffey, executive VP of brand strategy for NBCU Cable Entertainment.

The shift takes place immediately across all of NBCU’s cable portfolio, including Bravo, E!, Esquire, Oxygen, Sprout, Syfy, and USA.

The ratings move comes on the same day that parent company NBCUniversal unveiled a new audience targeting platform that will collect data from set-top boxes, among other places, to help media buyers figure out where to find their target audiences on the NBCU schedule.

NBCU will run it’s most high-value inventory through the new service, called the Audience Targeting Platform, which amounts to about one-third of its inventory.

Read More: Broadcasting & Cable, Adweek

Brief Take: Cable networks, especially, have been moving to Live + 3 data as audiences continue to erode. Look for more people to jump ship from same day reporting.

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