Census measurement

Census measurement is a technical measurement that is based on a measurement library installed in a player that transmits usage data to a central server. Census measurement is a full survey of the use of all offerings used on each player and in which the Nielsen measurement library is implemented. The entire usage, thus including usage at the workplace or other usage locations, is included in the measurement. It can only be differentiated by global vs. domestic usage. 

In order for an offering to be included in the census measurement, a measurement library must be implemented in a given player. The measurement code identifies the usage (also called “tagging”), making it possible to calculate performance values and differentiate the offerings. Each provider is itself responsible for implementing the measurement code, also with regard to data protection regulations. Nielsen accepts each implementation and adherence to the standards defined by AGF centrally. 

The stream view is a key parameter of the census measurement of AGF. A stream view occurs when a video is started by the user on the player. The measurement employed by AGF always takes place on the player being used (client) and is therefore different from server-based measurement techniques that detect a view when only a request to the server is registered.

In addition to the information that usually must be directly present for a video view (meta data such as the URL or time stamp), additional characterizing variables are assigned to the video when tagging is employed. These variables are of a descriptive nature and are known in the measurement system as customer variables, which are assigned to each video to be measured or each advertising unit played on the tagged player via the provider’s content management system (CMS).