Nielsen And Roku Form Industry-First Strategic Agreement To Advance Over-The-Top Audience Measurement

Furthers Industry's Ability to Measure & Monetize OTT Viewing

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Apr 30, 2015, 09:00 ET

NEW YORK, April 30, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- NewFronts – Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) and Roku, Inc., today announced a strategic agreement that will enable Nielsen to measure video advertising delivered to Roku^® streaming players and Roku TV™ models. Approximately half of the 250 most watched channels on the Roku platform are already delivering a large amount of advertising-supported content to consumers. This new measurement is an industry first for over-the-top (OTT) devices and will enable marketers to buy video advertising on the Roku^® platform with the same kind of audience guarantees available with traditional television.

As a first step, Nielsen and Roku will enable OTT measurement through Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings. Publishers who choose to participate will have the ability to measure their audience according to Nielsen demographics, as well as access the full suite of Digital Ad Ratings to measure, guarantee and report campaign audience delivery through the Roku platform. These new capabilities build on Nielsen's goal of delivering Total Audience measurement of all content and advertising, and are part of Roku's broader offerings for publishers and advertisers known as Roku Audience Solutions. More information can be found at www.roku.com/advertising.

"Cross-platform audience measurement is critical for advertisers looking to leverage the trend of increasing over-the-top video consumption," said Megan Clarken, EVP of Global Watch Product Leadership at Nielsen. "By working with Roku to measure live streaming and on-demand advertising on its platform, we can gain great insights into OTT viewing and expand the measurement and delivery of Total Audience Campaign and Content insights for all of our clients."

"We believe all TV will be streamed, and with it all TV advertising," said Scott Rosenberg, vice president of advertising at Roku. "We're excited to join forces with Nielsen to significantly advance the measurement and value of OTT advertising. With Nielsen, we're integrating these capabilities directly into the Roku OS, enabling Roku's channel publishers and advertisers to measure and transact on the industry's leading metrics."

About Roku Inc.
Roku is the creator of a popular streaming platform for delivering entertainment to the TV. Roku streaming players and the Roku Streaming Stick^® are made by Roku and sold through major retailers in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and the Republic of Ireland. Roku licenses a reference design and operating system to TV manufacturers to create Roku TV models co-branded with Haier, Hisense, Insignia, and TCL. Under the Roku Powered™ program, Roku licenses its streaming platform to Pay TV providers around the world who want to use the Internet to deliver entertainment. Roku was founded by Anthony Wood, inventor of the DVR. Roku is privately held and headquartered in Saratoga, Calif., U.S.

Roku and Streaming Stick are registered trademarks and Roku TV and Roku Powered are trademarks of Roku, Inc. in the U.S. and in other countries.

About Nielsen
Nielsen N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global performance management company that provides a comprehensive understanding of what consumers Watch and Buy. Nielsen's Watch segment provides media and advertising clients with Total Audience measurement services across all devices where content — video, audio and text — is consumed. The Buy segment offers consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers the industry's only global view of retail performance measurement. By integrating information from its Watch and Buy segments and other data sources, Nielsen provides its clients with both world-class measurement as well as analytics that help improve performance. Nielsen, an S&P 500 company, has operations in over 100 countries that cover more than 90 percent of the world's population. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.

SOURCE Nielsen