In a move that reflects the deepening connection between television and social media, Nielsen has introduced a new type of ratings system that seeks to measure the audience for TV-related conversations on Twitter.
The new Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings will take into account not only the people commenting on a TV episode, but also the broader universe of people exposed to those tweets. The measurement firm’s analysis found that the average Twitter audience for a show such as NBC’s singing competition “The Voice” is 50 times greater than the number of people tweeting.
“We always knew there’s a larger audience being impressed by and influenced by the tweets about TV,” said Sean Casey, founder of Nielsen’s SocialGuide unit. “We’re excited now to present that data.”
Twitter has emerged as a virtual water cooler, where viewers gather to discuss in real time the events unfolding on TV — be it the finale of AMC’s Emmy Award-winning drama “Breaking Bad” or a high-profile sporting event such as the Super Bowl.
Some 19 million people in the U.S. produced 263 million tweets about TV in the second quarter this year, a 38 percent increase in volume of comments from a year earlier, Nielsen reported.
“It speaks to Twitter’s default status as being the essential social data point around television viewing,” said Tim Hanlon, founder of media and technology consulting firm Vertere Group. “And it speaks to a consumer consumption reality that television — and by extension, video — is a multifaceted thing. It is no longer exclusively a live, linear, sit-back-and-watch phenomenon.”
