Nielsen reported higher fourth quarter profits as more clients adopted its Total Audience Measurement system.
The ratings company is expected to face tougher competition in the U.S. from the new combination of comScore and Rentrak.
Net income rose 61% to $251 million in the quarter, or 68 cents a share, compared to $161 million, or 42 cents a share, a year ago. Net income was boosted by having a larger stake in Nielsen Catalina Solutions.
Revenue fell 0.6% to $1.6 billion. The company said that without the impact of the strong dollars, revenues increased 5.6% on a constant currency basis.
“2015 was a banner year for our company with the rollout of Nielsen Total Audience Measurement, new client wins across both our Watch and Buy segments, and the launch of the Nielsen enterprise marketing platform driven by our acquisition of eXelate,” said CEO Mitch Barns.
“We look forward in 2016 with confidence. In times of economic turmoil and market volatility, the strengths of Nielsen’s resilient business model are most evident. Our independence, gold-standard measurement, rapidly developing platform for precision marketing, and successful framework for Total Audience Measurement, are some of the most important underpinnings of this resilience, and our client relationships continue to grow as a result.”
Nielsen said that revenues for its Watch segment, which produces TV ratings and other forms of media measures, was up 2.8% to $745 million and up 5.2% in constant currency. Audience measurement of Video and Text was up 7.6% in constant currency because of continued client adoption of the Total Audience Measurement framework, the company said.
