Major League Baseball games on Netflix will be getting the Nielsen treatment this season.
According to a report by Austin Karp in Sports Business Journal, MLB games that are set to air on Netflix this season will be measured by audience measurement firm Nielsen. Netflix is entering the first season of a three-year deal with MLB to carry an Opening Day game, the Home Run Derby, and the Field of Dreams Game.
Prior to this deal, the only live sporting events on Netflix to be measured by Nielsen have been the Christmas Day NFL doubleheaders. Other events, like numerous marquee fights, one-off golf and tennis competitions, and WWE Raw, have not been measured via a third-party firm like Nielsen. Thus, when Netflix has released viewership data for these events, comparisons are apples and oranges.
Netflix will move further into live sports in the coming years, with the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup looming as the streamer’s first major event to air entirely on its platform. One would imagine that if Netflix is prepared to use Nielsen for its MLB package, it’d be comfortable using the company for next year’s World Cup.
Nielsen remains the gold standard by which networks and advertisers do business, so having Nielsen-rated MLB games should give advertisers more confidence when buying inventory on Netflix.
With just a handful of games each season, all of which are elevated in one way or another, it makes sense for Netflix to want formal Nielsen measurements. Other streamers that have bought season-long packages of live sports, like Apple’s MLS package or Peacock’s NBA package, have opted not to have Nielsen measure those games, likely for fear of exposing small audiences.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.