Nielsen Launched New “Big Data + Panel” Ratings Measurement System, Current Negative Impact on Wrestling TV Shows

Nielsen Media Research recently launched a new television ratings measurement system called “Big Data + Panel.”

Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that Nielsen’s previous ratings system was called Automatic Content Measurement (ACM) which is a panel-only methodology for ratings data gathering. Thurston reported that this old system will be phased out during the fourth quarter of 2025.

In regards to the prior system, Thurston reported:

“Panel-only data has been based generally on a representative sample of households (”Nielsen households” or “panel” data) whose viewing is actually being metered. The national audience is/was then extrapolated based on that sample.”

In regards to their new ratings measurement system, Nielsen reportedly claims that Big Data + Panel will improve accuracy when it comes to data for ratings data for television shows going forward.

Thurston reported that this new Big Data + Panel system uses massive device-level data from set-top boxes and smart TVs and panel data is used to validate the big data and scale measurements.

In regards to the current negative impact of Big Data + Panel towards the viewership and ratings for wrestling television shows, Thurston reported that telecasts that have a younger age skew appears to tend to more lower with Big Data + Panel compared to the prior system but it is not consistent.

Thurston reported that these new changes have led to overall viewership declines as low as 5% in the case with the September 27th episode of AEW Collision and as high as %13 in the case with the September 23rd episode of WWE NXT and September 24th episode of AEW Dynamite.

Thurston also reported that these changes have also led to mixed results for key demographic ratings with a 26% increase for the September 27th episode of AEW Collision but decreases of 28% for the September 23rd episode of WWE NXT and 20% for the September 24th episode of AEW Dynamite.

Thurston also reported that despite the issues with the new system and television ratings becoming harder to understand as the number of cable households has declined and entertainment options have grown, the most important metric for wrestling TV shows still remains the ranking of a wrestling TV show’s viewership relative to programming generally. Thurston reported that this more than overall viewership is what “allows major networks to justify paying hundreds of millions of dollars a year for those telecasts in an increasingly competitive media environment.”

In regards to ratings releases from Nielesn, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Nielsen’s new ratings measurement system will lead to ratings now being released later than before by at least an extra day going forward instead of the usual day after a show.

Meltzer reported that Nielsen had tested out their new system during this past August’s NFL Preseason games due to the NFL was the one who pushed the hardest for this new system to go into effect. Meltzer also reported that it appears one key issue for why wrestling television ratings have been down from this new system is due to it not measuring streaming yet, which impacts both wrestling TV shows and television shows on streaming services. Metlzer speculated that this could explain why numbers for television shows have been mostly down in general under this new system.