Nielsen is about to shine some light on one of the biggest black holes in the television landscape these days: viewership metrics on the major SVOD services such as Netflix and Amazon.
The research and ratings company will begin monitoring Netflix and Amazon Instant viewing among its existing nationwide home consumer panel by using the audio-recognition capabilities of its meter boxes.
But the company says it will not be reporting how may people are watching SVOD originals programming such as Netflix’s Orange is the New Black and House of Cards or Amazon’s Transparent and Alpha House. Only content produced by outside studios and networks will be measured.
Mobile devices also will be left out of the mix.
News of Nielsen’s plans was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
“Our clients will be able to look at their programs and understand: Is putting content on Netflix impacting the viewership on linear and traditional VOD?” Nielsen Senior Vice President Brian Fuhrer told the Journal.
Programmers have long been frustrated by Netflix’s lack of transparency, in particular.
“The lack of data ‘runs counter to just about everything else in the industry,’ said Larry Gerbrandt, principal of the consultancy Media Valuation Partners back in June. “Netflix could say, ‘We’ll renew, but now your content’s older, and we want to pay you less.’ But if the programmers had viewership data that would show that usage is going up, or [is] at least flat, that would counter that argument.”
Brief Take: The lack of data on SVOD services’ buzzy originals will still cause grumbling, but new streaming numbers will help networks and marketers tell a more complete story of how their series are faring in this evolving viewership landscape.
Tags: