In a bid to include ​viewing outside the living room in reported television ratings, Nielsen is claiming that out-of-home viewing can lift ratings up to 9 percent.

This comes from a Portable People Meter study conducted in Chicago this year, in which the measurement company says they were able to see a quantifiable boost in TV ratings in viewers watching content in their offices and around the city.

The study lasted three months starting in April of this year, measuring viewership of media content on mobile devices, and claims it has found a “meaningful lift” in ratings. In the 25-54 demographic, ratings were boosted from 7 to 9 percent.

According to Nielsen, this is especially true for news and sports. Sports content could likely see the biggest uptick in their ratings when factoring in out-of-home, as these ratings could take into consideration fans watching weekly games at friends’ houses or bars. The April study found that sports programming gained 14 percent in the ratings with out-of-home viewers.

“Understanding how consumers view television away from home is critical to our clients and measuring out-of-home expands the viewing pie, as this test demonstrated,” said Matt O’Grady, Nielsen’s EVP and managing director. “At Nielsen, our priority is to measure audiences wherever they are viewing, both inside and outside the home, over-the-air, over-the-top and on mobile devices.”

Read more at Broadcasting & Cable.

Brief Take: The ratings report reflects the feelings of several cable groups, who say that their lower ratings this year are partly due to segments of their audience watching their content on phones, tablets and at their desks. Any inclusion of out-of-home ratings, if the study’s ratings boost continues, could help those networks with advertisers.

[Image courtesy of Nielsen]

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