Nielsen is changing its methodology for the upcoming 2026–27 television season, but the NFL is anything but happy about it.
The league tells Front Office Sports that the forthcoming shifts, led by an enhancement in co-viewing measurement and taking effect Aug. 31, are “overly rushed.”
“Our concern is that this is going to make measurement for the upcoming season muddled,” NFL SVP of data and analytics Paul Ballew tells FOS. “It’s been a real struggle with Nielsen, and these latest changes raise even more questions for us.”
The NFL’s current sentiments heighten a frustration the league has had with Nielsen for much of the past year, particularly around the co-viewing issue. The league has long felt that its audiences, though by far the largest in U.S. television, were still being undercounted amid the hefty group-watching inherent to football fandom.
Crux of the Issue
