EXCLUSIVE: SAG-AFTRA has renewed its contract with Nielsen to provide third-party streaming data and analytics to the guild.
The 160,000-strong actors union has been using Nielsen’s streaming content ratings service since it reached a deal with the major Hollywood studios in 2023 to help verify the viewership numbers provided directly from the streamers themselves. Per the latest contract, the studios agreed to share performance data with the guilds as well as offer a bonus to titles that exceed a certain audience threshold.
The goal of using Nielsen’s insights is to have an objective source to compare that data against to keep the streamers honest and help the union enforce the provisions of the contract. Nielsen’s dataset is also being used by SAG-AFTRA to forecast future performance and strengthen its negotiation tactics on that part of the contract.
“We provide the most accurate, trusted and accredited streaming data for our clients,” Nielsen CEO Karthik Rao, said in a statement. “It’s been incredibly rewarding to partner with SAG-AFTRA over the past year to serve as an independent arbiter of viewership for the best TV and movies in the world. We’re thrilled to continue the partnership.”
Added SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland: “With the pace of change in our industry and the additional metrics we are now tracking, having the Nielsen streaming data to underpin the first-party data we receive has been both essential and highly effective, and as a result we will be continuing to rely on that data moving forward.”
SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America fought hard for the streaming performance bonus two years ago, and that provision was an important factor in the historically long strikes that both unions endured.
The 2023 TV/Theatrical Agreement states that a streaming title is eligible for a bonus if it receives enough domestic “views” in its first 90 days to be equivalent to 20% of the streaming service’s domestic subscribers. “Views” are defined as the hours viewed divided by the runtime of a project, rather than the true number of unique accounts that interact with the title.
For SAG-AFTRA, any title that surpasses the viewership threshold will trigger a payment to each principal performer equivalent to 100% of the fixed residual. However, the performer will only receive 75% of that payment. The other 25% will be funneled into a fund controlled by both SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP trustees to be distributed among the rest of the union’s members.
So far, neither the union nor the AMPTP has offered clarity on the establishment of that fund or the distribution of payments thus far. As Deadline understands it, 20% of domestic subscribers is a high bar, and not many titles have even met that threshold save for the most popular, like Stranger Things or some of Marvel’s offerings.
During negotiations, the studios provided an evaluation of which projects would have qualified in the last year, according to Crabtree-Ireland, who previously told Deadline that SAG-AFTRA conducted its own analysis to compare with the studios’ and expanded the data to include content from the past several years.
“We think we have a handle on approximately how much money would be generated from this based on the number of shows that qualify and the number of performers,” he said. “It’s obviously not a fixed number, it’s going to depend upon how successful projects are.”
The Nielsen relationship seems to be integral to SAG-AFTRA’s ongoing understanding of streaming data. Overall, the major media companies have kept their streaming performance insights very close to the vest, though transparency has gotten better over time. No doubt that the union will use that it has learned in its upcoming negotiations on a 2026 TV/Theatrical contract next year.
