Hulu Live: How to Opt-Out of Nielsen Ratings
Hulu has you opted in by default for the Nielsen ratings system. Here’s how to opt-out of your viewing habits being counted.
The Nielsen Measurement service is meant to track the shows you’re watching. It tracks what you’re viewing and gives the advertisers, showrunners, and producers an idea of how many people watched. Or, a term you’ve probably heard the term: “What were the show’s ratings last night.” Or, “The show was canceled due to low ratings.”
According to Hulu, it has a propriety measurement software solution like Digital Ad Ratings (DAR).
Hulu says this about how it uses the Nielsen measurement system:
The Hulu service may feature Nielsen proprietary measurement software such as Nielsen Digital Ad Ratings (DAR) when you stream Hulu on your television through streaming media players, smart TVs, Chromecast, Blu-ray players, gaming consoles and similar devices (collectively, “Living Room Devices”). Nielsen DAR on Living Room Devices allows Nielsen to measure the performance of ad campaigns viewed by our registered users.
This data is critical to advertisers as well. Whether a show continues running all depends on the ratings it receives. If a show’s ratings are low, you can count on that show being canceled by the network it appears on. Or, it might be moved to a different timeslot. Or, advertisers will stop airing commercials during the show.
By default, the Hulu Live streaming service has your viewing tracked by Nielsen. Don’t want your viewing habits tracked by the Nielsen rating service? Here’s how to opt-out.
Stop Being Counted by Nielson Ratings
From a browser, head to https://secure.hulu.com/account and log into your Hulu account.
Then scroll down the page and under the “Privacy And Settings” section, click the Manage Nielsen Measurement link.
After that, a screen will pop up, and all you need to do is click the Opt-Out button.
That’s all there is to it. Now when you start watching your favorite shows, you’ll no longer be tracked by Nielsen measurements. If you want to be counted later, just go back to the same section and choose the Opt-In button
