Saturday, February 23, 2013

Nielsen, Billboard shift their tracking to account for cord cutters - 03:42 PM

(gigaom.com) -- For the first time, Nielsen will begin tracking the habits of viewers who watch TV over broadband. And in another example of online media consumption shaking up traditional tracking methods, Billboard will begin including YouTube music video views in its charts.

The Nielsen news was first reported on Wednesday by The Hollywood Reporter, which said that by September 2013 “Nielsen expects to have in place new hardware and software tools in the nearly 23,000 TV homes it samples.” Nielsen confirmed the news on Thursday, with Nielsen SVP Pat McDonough telling the New York Times that the company’s definition of “television household” will now include “those households who are receiving broadband Internet and putting it onto a television set.” According to the AP:

More from gigaom.com
  • Exclusive: Airtel bets big on Wi-Fi across Africa as it looks for 3G substitutes
  • New crime-prediction research highlights the promise of big data
  • Facebook's long Graph Search to-do list
  • Subscribe to gigaom.com

“This will add roughly 160 homes to Nielsen’s current sample of 23,000 houses nationwide with meters monitoring viewing habits.

The company is also working on ways to track viewing on smartphones and tablets.

Separately, Billboard has begun including official YouTube music video views (from the U.S.) in its rankings. “All official videos on YouTube, including user-generated clips that utilize authorized audio, will now factor into how a song’s popularity is determined,” YouTube said on its blog. Billboard’s charts have included digital download and streaming data, tracked by Nielsen, since last year.

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

  • Connected Consumer 2012: A year of consolidation and integration
  • The Ultimate Guide To TV Everywhere
  • The state of cross-platform media measurement

No comments:

Post a Comment