Nielsen’s Plan to Count TV Viewers Across Screens Faces Obstacles

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Starting with this fall’s new programming season, Nielsen, the U.S. television industry’s dominant measurement firm, will begin reporting TV ratings that will finally include viewership on just about everything, including mobile devices. Don’t break out the champagne just yet. A range of issues, from the lack of commercial rights across digital platforms to the need for the networks and pay-TV distributors to implement Nielsen’s new technology, could mute the early benefits, underscoring just how difficult it has been for the media business to keep up with the rapidly changing ways we consume video today. TV viewership on mobile devices will only be credited toward overall television ratings if the digital version of an episode carries the exact same ads in the exact same time slots. However, this may not always be possible for a variety of reasons.


Nielsen’s Plan to Count TV Viewers Across Screens Faces Obstacles