The company had revenues of $1.56bn in the three months to 30 September, with its Nielsen Global Media division seeing a 3.9% fall in revenues to $836m. The company’s second quarter results had seen an 8.1% fall in revenue.

Nielsen Global Connect revenues decreased 2.5% to $727m on a reported basis, or a decrease of 1.6% on a constant currency basis.

Net income for the third quarter was $7m on a reported basis, compared with a net loss of $472m in the third quarter of 2019. The third quarter of 2019 included an impairment charge of $1bn, related to a write down of goodwill at Nielsen Global Connect.

The third quarter results meant shareholders could receive diluted net earnings per share of $0.02 and adjusted earnings per share of $0.43.

Earlier this week, Nielsen announced the sale of its Global Connect business to equity investor Advent International, in partnership with Jim Peck, former chief executive of TransUnion, for $2.7bn. The sale proceeds will be used primarily for debt reduction.

Nielsen said in November 2019 it would spin off Global Connect, which provides data for consumer packaged goods manufacturers and retailers, and split into two businesses, with the other half – Nielsen Global Media – focusing on media market metrics.

The company also made 3,500 jobs redundant globally earlier this year and exited from non-core businesses as part of cost-saving restructuring measures.

David Kenny (pictured), chief executive officer at Nielsen, said: “We have confidence in our ability to deliver on our objectives and guidance for the full year 2020.

“We made strong progress on key initiatives in the quarter, particularly cross-media measurement with expansion of our Connected TV footprint to now include YouTube and YouTubeTV. We continue to focus on expanding our role in the ecosystem, enabling content and measuring outcomes across key advertising categories.”