By the Nielsen firm's rely, 7.8 million folks watched Amazon Prime's protection of final Thursday's NFL sport between New Orleans and Arizona. However Amazon says no, there have been truly 8.9 million folks watching.
So which is it?
You will have to evaluate for your self. After every of its Thursday night time video games this season, Amazon has publicly contradicted Nielsen on this method, one of many boldest challenges ever to an organization that for generations has monopolized the rely of individuals watching packages on tv.
Neither firm is saying the opposite is fallacious, however neither is backing down, both. The result's confusion, most notably for advertisers.
Nielsen, because it has for years, follows the viewing habits in a panel of properties throughout the nation and, from that restricted pattern, derives an estimate of how many individuals watch a specific program. That quantity is forex within the media business, that means it's used to find out promoting charges.
Amazon, within the first 12 months of an 11-year contract to stream Thursday night time video games, says it has an precise rely of each one among its subscribers who streams it — not an estimate. The video games are additionally televised within the native markets of the taking part groups, about 9% of its whole viewership every week, and Amazon makes use of Nielsen's estimate for that portion of the full.
"We would not put out our quantity if we weren't comfy that it was correct," stated Jay Marine, vice chairman of Amazon Prime Video and head of its sports activities division.
Via six weeks, Nielsen says the Thursday night time video games have averaged 10.3 million viewers. Amazon says the common is 12.1 million. Amazon's estimate has been greater than Nielsen's every week.
"I do not in any respect consider that Amazon's numbers are usually not proper," stated Connie Kim, Nielsen spokeswoman. "And I do not consider that our numbers are usually not proper."
Since completely different methodologies are getting used, it is no shock that there are variations within the estimate, she stated.
"It is going to take some time," Kim stated. "Because it evolves it ought to be one quantity. However we're not fairly there but."
Rankings panorama altering quickly
For now, advert costs for the Thursday video games are set utilizing Nielsen's numbers. However Amazon clearly has an incentive to let purchasers know that it believes extra individuals are truly watching.
"You need to do not forget that that is new — new for Nielsen and it is the primary time there's been precise information for an occasion like this," Marine stated.
The dispute has clear implications for the long run. Streamers have not had a lot incentive for measurements of day by day viewing to be publicized, partially as a result of folks do not watch their exhibits the identical approach as broadcast tv, and so they have not wanted numbers verified from a third-party supply for advertisers.
However with Netflix about to introduce promoting, that may all change very quickly. And if different corporations develop expertise that may measure viewing extra exactly, the precedent has now been set for publicly disputing Nielsen's numbers.
In prime time final week, NBC was the top-rated community, averaging 5.1 million viewers. CBS had 4.7 million, Fox had 4 million, ABC had 3 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Ion Tv had 950,000 and Telemundo had 880,000.
TBS was the most-watched cable community, averaging 2.85 million viewers in prime time. ESPN had 2.68 million, Fox Information Channel had 2.26 million, MSNBC had 1.09 million and TNT had 1.05 million.