Nielsen continues to come up with ways to more accurately capture viewing audiences. And, in turn, to pump up the numbers.
The company announced on Tuesday that a “co-viewing pilot” consisting of wearable technology has resulted in a 4.19-percent average viewership increase for various significant TV events in February 2026: Super Bowl LX, the Olympics Opening Ceremony, the NBA All-Star Game, the Daytona 500, the Olympics Closing Ceremony, Olympics men’s hockey gold medal game, and State of the Union Address.
Basically, the wearable technology better captures the programming that a given person is consuming.
The release doesn’t provide specific increases for each of the events. A 4.19-percent bump in the Super Bowl audience would have increased the final number for the Patriots-Seahawks game from 125.6 million viewers to 130.86 million.
The release explains that the “co-viewing pilot” figures won’t be added to the official audience numbers. Nielsen hopes to incorporate those numbers into official ratings measurements for the 2026-27 television season.
The bottom line is that the bottom line will grow as to the TV audiences, which will better position the NFL to justify higher fees for the rights to broadcast its games.
