Profitable Q4 for Nielsen

Nielsen has reported fourth quarter 2020 net income of $35m, compared to a loss of $109m in the prior year period. Revenue for the period fell just 1.1% to $1.67bn, while adjusted EBITDA was $560m, up 13.8%. For the full year, the company almost broke even, on revenues down 3.2%.

Q4 revenues for Nielsen Global Media decreased 1.9% to $872m, while Audience Measurement revenues rose 0.2%, and Plan/Optimize revenues slipped 6.8%. Retail measurement arm Nielsen Global Connect, which is being sold to Advent International for $2.7 bn, saw Q4 revenue drop 1.9% to $800m.

For the year as a whole, group revenues were down 3.2% to $6.29 bn, while Adjusted EBITDA was $1,882 million, an increase of 1.6% on a reported basis. Net loss for the year was $6m, compared with net loss of $415m in 2019. Nielsen Global Media full-year revenues decreased 2.3% to $3.3bn, while Connect revenues dropped 4.2% to $2.9bn.

CEO David Kenny (pictured) comments: 'Our solid results in 2020 reflect strong execution and the resiliency of Nielsen's business model. We acted swiftly to keep our people safe and healthy, and to mitigate the impact of the global pandemic on our operations. In parallel, we accelerated progress on our transformation, rationalizing our product portfolio including the planned sale of Global Connect, and aligning our product roadmap around two unique platforms for ads and for content. We have now reached an inflection point and we are focused on driving new growth from new solutions and new customers'.

In December, the company announced plans to launch a single, cross-media solution called Nielsen ONE in Q4 2022, to provide a comparable metric for TV and digital video consumption across all platforms, services and devices.

For 2021, Nielsen is forecasting revenue growth of 2% to 3%.

Web site: www.nielsen.com .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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