Nielsen, it appears, is tired of ducking for cover.

Faced with mounting criticism from all corners of the television industry that its ratings system is hopelessly out of date, the company told the world on Thursday that it agrees it’s time for a new ratings standard.

While smartphone and tablet viewing is now counted in the traditional ratings, “this does not solve the dilemma that the underlying industry trading metric has not kept pace with consumer behavior or the business models being adopted by today’s media companies,” wrote Megan Clarken, Nielsen evp of global watch product leadership on the company’s website.

Nielsen is proposing replacing the old ratings metric with two new standards: Total Audience and Total Commercial:

-Total Audience, which combines the total audience for a program or content regardless of the mode of access, including SVOD.

-Total Commercial, which includes ratings for the ad campaign regardless of where and how it’s consumed, providing flexibility for dynamic ad insertion.

Hours before Nielsen’s announcement, Viacom boss Philippe Dauman on Thursday blamed his networks’ falling ratings on the service’s “outdated” measurement.

Nielsen itself conceded that falling television ratings could be blamed on a shift in its methodology and the shifting viewing habits of the general public. Clarken cited four reasons for falling ratings over recent years:

-The growing shift of audiences to time-shifted digital content, including both SVOD (subscription video on demand), such as Netflix, and digital properties distributing traditional television programming, such as Hulu. Neither of these are included in the current TV ratings under industry definitions

-Increased viewership of TV programs on devices such as tablets and smartphones, which became eligible for inclusion in Nielsen ratings this fall.

-Growing time and attention spent on newer sources of video content, such as YouTube

-The addition of broadband-only viewing to the TV ratings universe

The challenge is to retain and build audiences and to prove their value to advertisers. To do this, Nielsen is prepared to present the total picture of the consumer — one that fully reflects their viewing of all content available and delivers a proven return to our clients on their investments,” Clarken wrote. “Nielsen is committed to measuring the total audience.”

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