• by Alex Weprin , January 7, 2019

Thanks to a newly expanded deal with Google, Nielsen is bringing YouTube mobile viewership figures to its cross-platform measurement solution, Total Ad Ratings.

YouTube ads will now be measured comparably alongside TV inventory, with Nielsen saying it will be the only solution that measures outside the household or beyond device activity.

Nielsen has measured YouTube before through its Digital Ad Ratings, and YouTube TV through its local ratings product.

The new agreement brings mobile viewing to the party, an advancement sought by advertisers looking to see whether their ads are reaching people on TV and mobile devices.

Nielsen is effectively bringing together its National Panel and Digital Ad Ratings product to provide a more holistic picture of TV and video viewership. The company says its newly revised solution will “offer the ability to compare the performance of ads delivered through TV and digital using comparable metrics based on real people and real data.”

It will measure de-duplicated viewing on TVs, computers, mobile devices, tablets, or any combination thereof.

True cross-platform measurement has been a long time coming. The expanded Total Ad Ratings is not completely inclusive, but it is a major step forward.

That dispute over measurement has been one of the sticking points in negotiations with CBS, which saw its contract with Nielsen lapse at the beginning of this year after the companies failed to reach a new agreement.