Analytics Kotlin Nielsen DCR Plugin

Nielsen Digital Content Ratings (DCR) respond to the shifting and complex multi-platform, multi-device, and multi-distribution landscape by providing comprehensive measurement of digital content consumption—including streaming video, static web pages and mobile apps—across all major devices and platforms. The Analytics-Kotlin Nielsen-DCR Plugin](https://github.com/segment-integrations/analytics-kotlin-nielsen-dcr){:target=”_blank”} tracks data for Analytics-Kotlin.

Getting started

To get started with Nielsen-DCR and retrieve an appid to configure this integration, you must complete the following prerequisite steps with Nielsen:

• Fill out your company info and work with a Nielsen representative.
• Sign a license agreement on the Nielsen engineering portal.
• Sign an NDA to sign prior to accessing the download.
• Complete a pre-certification process with your Nielsen representative before shipping this implementation to production.

Adding the dependency

To install the Segment-Nielsen-DCR integration, add this line to your gradle file:

implementation 'com.segment.analytics.kotlin.destinations:nielsen-dcr:<latest_version>'

Or the following for Kotlin DSL

implementation("com.segment.analytics.kotlin.destinations:nielsen-dcr:<latest_version>")

Also add the Maven Nielsen Digital SDK repo (since Nielsen doesn’t publish it on Maven Central) inside the repositories section in your project level build.gradle.

allprojects {
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
        maven {
            url 'https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NielsenDigitalSDK/nielsenappsdk-android/master/'
        }
    }
}

Or the following for Kotlin DSL

allprojects {
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
        maven {
            url = uri("https://raw.githubusercontent.com/NielsenDigitalSDK/nielsenappsdk-android/master/")
        }
    }
}

Using the plugin in your app

Open the file where you set up and configured the Analytics-Kotlin library. Add this plugin to the list of imports.

import com.segment.analytics.kotlin.destinations.nielsendcr.NielsenDCRDestination

Just under your Analytics-Kotlin library setup, call analytics.add(plugin = ...) to add an instance of the plugin to the Analytics timeline.

    analytics = Analytics("<YOUR WRITE KEY>", applicationContext) {
        this.flushAt = 3
        this.trackApplicationLifecycleEvents = true
    }
    analytics.add(plugin = NielsenDCRDestination())

Your events contain Nielsen-DCR session data and will now begin to flow to Nielsen-DCR in device-mode.

Screen / Page

Segment supports translating Screen or Page to Nielsen as a Static App Measurement event. Segment translates the following properties to the expected Nielsen metadata:

* On web and mobile, you can map a custom property to section using the Custom Page/Screen Section Property Name setting. If this setting is left blank, Segment will fallback on the top-level name.

Track

Segment only supports sending Track events as outlined in the Video Spec. To start tracking video content through Segment, use a media player with an API which allows you to detect the player state, like video or ad plays. For example, you cannot collect ad plays using YouTube because their YouTube SDK doesn’t expose any hooks into player states during ad plays.

Once you’ve selected a media player with an API that exposes the player state, configure video tracking using Segment’s Video Spec and implement video tracking as in the Spec. After you’ve configured video tracking according to the Video Spec, Segment maps the semantic events and properties to Nielsen’s relevant methods and metadata.

Heartbeats

Nielsen expects a heartbeat called with playheadPosition during session play every second until the stream is completed, paused or interrupted (due to ad breaks or buffering). The playhead position is the current location in seconds of the playhead from the beginning of the asset. For livestream, Segment expects a negative integer that represents the offset in seconds in relation to the current timestamp. For example, if content is being livestreamed at 8PM but the viewer is 30 seconds behind, the value of this property should be -30. You can override this and pass the current time in seconds to Nielsen by toggling the Enable Default to Current Time for Livestream Playhead Position setting.

Segment sets a timer to call this heartbeat event (–(void) playheadPosition: (long long) playheadPos), setTimeout (web)) every second in the background. You do NOT have to call the Segment equivalent heartbeat event (Video Content/Ad Playing) each second. You should follow the recommendations in the Video Spec and call the Segment heartbeat event every 10 seconds. While Nielsen keeps state of its own playhead position for these background heartbeats, when they do receive an explicit Segment heartbeat event the background heartbeats are restarted from that position.

Playback Events

When you call Video Playback Started and Video Playback Resumed, Segment calls the Nielsen-DCR play method with the relevant channelInfo:

NSDictionary *channelInfo = @{
                                      // channelName is optional for DCR, if not present Nielsen asks to set default
                                      @"channelName" : options[@"channelName"] ?: @"defaultChannelName",
                                      // if mediaURL is not available, Nielsen expects an empty value
                                      @"mediaURL" : options[@"mediaUrl"] ?: @""
                                      };
(void) play: (id) channelInfo;

From there, Segment maps Nielsen events to relevant Segment events as outlined below:

For playback events, Segment’s Video Spec expects either ad_asset_id​ or content_asset_id​ depending on whether the video is an ad or content. Segment defaults to mapping ad_asset_id to Nielsen’s ad metadata assetid and content_asset_id to Nielsen’s content metadata. The default Segment property can be overridden in your integration settings: Custom Content Asset Id Property Name or Custom Ad Asset Id Property Name.

Content Events

Content Properties (Labels)

camelCase is expected for Android.

Ad Events

The Segment-Nielsen-DCR integration has logic to check for type in case of a preroll ad. If the type is preroll, Segment calls Nielsen’s loadMetadata method with metadata values for content followed by loadMetadata with ad (preroll) metadata. Otherwise, Segment simply calls loadMetadata with the ad metadata.

camelCase is expected for Android.

Integration specific options

Pipmode

Current state of picture-in-picture (PIP) mode on device. Pass in true if the video measurement is displayed in PIP mode. Otherwise, Segment defaults to false if no value is present.

Ad load type

Type of ad load. Pass in dynamic to indicate Dynamic Ad Insertion (DAI). Otherwise, Segment defaults to linear.

Channel Name and Media URL

The SDK is started by calling the play API with the channelName and mediaURL parameters. If no value is passed in, Segment defaults to defaultChannelName for channelName and an empty String for mediaURL.

Cross Id 1

Standard episode ID.

Cross Id 2

Content originator ID. This value is only required for distributors.

Example for Android:

Map<String, Object> nielsenOptions = new LinkedHashMap<>();
nielsenOptions.put("pipmode", "c3 value");
nielsenOptions.put("adLoadType", "c4 value");
nielsenOptions.put("channelName", "c6 value");
nielsenOptions.put("mediaUrl", "c6 value");
nielsenOptions.put("hasAds", "true");
nielsenOptions.put("crossId1", "cross id1 value");
nielsenOptions.put("crossId2", "cross id2 value");

Analytics.with(context).track("Video Playback Started", new Properties(), new Options().setIntegrationOptions("nielsen-dcr", nielsenOptions));

FAQ

How do you determine App Name?

Segment retrieves the name of the application package from the PackageManager.

How do you determine App Version?

Segment-Nielsen-DCR retrieves the application version from your app’s Info.plist application bundle name as returned by CFBundleVersion.

For Android, we retrieve the version of the application package from the PackageManager.

What are the Nielsen-DCR clientId and subbrand values?

The Parent Client ID and Sub-Brand (VCID) values are automatically populated through the AppID, which is Nielsen Supplied. By default, clientid and subbrand are set up in Nielsen’s backend configuration to capture brand and sub-brand information. Nielsen populates the fields from backend for a registered client appid.

Can I override the Nielsen-DCR clientId and subbrand values?

In the event that your app contains multiple brands and sub-brands, Segment lets you override the clientId and subbrand values, to give credit to another brand or sub-brand. In your Segment dashboard, under “Client Id Property Name”, indicate a payload property to be mapped to the Nielsen clientId. To override a subbrand, indicate a payload property to mapped to Nielsen subbrand under “Subbrand Property Name”.