Nielsen is expected to tell clients next week that next September it will start including TV ratings for shows watched on mobile devices as part of its national ratings.
The announcement couldn’t come soon enough for broadcast and cable networks, who have been pushing Nielsen for better metrics for years, especially as more and more viewing moves off of the television and on to smart phones and tablets.
“Networks are starving for a number they can publish that really represents their audience not just on TV but across all platforms,” Eric Solomon, Nielsen’s senior VP of global audience measurement, told Variety. “I think it will start changing the narrative that ‘people are not watching TV shows.’ It’s that they’re watching on different platforms.”
Simultaneously, Variety also reported, Nielsen is working to deliver digital program ratings in the first quarter of 2014. Those ratings are intended to measure viewership of content delivered online without the national commercials, but instead with digitally inserted ads. A pilot program is currently underway with ABC, CBS, Fox, NBC, A&E, The CW, Discovery, Univision and AOL. Earlier this month, network entertainment chiefs gathered on the Fox lot to discuss how to push Nielsen and its ratings system to better match actual viewer habits.
Read more: Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Wall Street Journal
Brief Take: TV networks and programmers need more accurate measurements in order to more accurately state their performance and monetize their offerings.
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