NFL Says It Lacks Data to Fully Assess Nielsen's New Ratings System

August 23, 2026 · sportico.com

Speaking to reporters on a Thursday Zoom call, NFL senior vice president of data and analytics Paul Ballew said the league still has misgivings about Nielsen's fall 2025 currency upgrades, which changed how the company measures co-viewing, weighs connected-TV deliveries and measures Spanish-language media. Ballew said the NFL does not have enough impact data to fully assess how the revised methodology will show up in this season's ratings, and that Nielsen rushed a number of fixes into the market ahead of the fall season. A year earlier, Ballew said Nielsen's reported co-viewing factor of 2.4 people per household for Super Bowl LIX "just makes no sense." Nielsen ran a pilot in February that found enhanced co-viewing data lifted measured consumption of major sporting events, including Super Bowl LX, by 4.2%, a result Ballew called a positive even as he flagged the connected-TV changes as a negative for sports.

Guarantees written against much of the inventory sold in this year's $33.8 billion sports upfront were modeled using estimates from Nielsen's new measurement system, and early spring pricing data already show fall football rates up around 2% versus last season. Agencies and NFL media partners had a chance to review the data enhancements before the 2026-27 upfront market opened in early spring, so the guarantees they signed reflect the new methodology. The NFL's own uncertainty about how the changes net out, a lift from co-viewing weighed against what Ballew calls a hit from the connected-TV adjustments, means buyers should expect some movement when actual season ratings are measured against those modeled guarantees.