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TVs Connected to the Internet to Be Counted by Nielsen
Americans who have spurned cable, but who have a television set hooked up to the Internet, will now be counted as a “television household” by The Nielsen Company, potentially adding to the sample of homes that are rated by the company.
The change, Nielsen said in a statement, was necessary to “more completely reflect media consumption.” It comes nearly two years after Nielsen said it was thinking about redefining the term “TV household” to include those that stream shows. The industry’s collective sense of urgency has increased as new Web services like Aereo have allowed people to watch TV channels, ads and all, without a cable subscription or an antenna.
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Six-tenths of one percent of households in the United States meet the description of households that have TV sets hooked up to the Internet but have no other source of TV. Some of these may be “cord-cutters,” people who have chosen to stop paying for cable. Others may be people who have never subscribed to cable. Nielsen says it believes the number will increase in the future, so it’s trying to get ahead of the change.
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The changes emanated from a measurement committee comprised of Nielsen executives and two dozen representatives from networks and advertising firms. The committee met in New York on Tuesday and approved the changes. The Hollywood Reporter described a source at one of the big broadcast networks as being “ecstatic at the prospect of expanded measurement tools.”
There is intense anxiety within those networks because, in some cases, their ratings are slipping rather dramatically. The culprits include digital video recorder usage, delayed viewership thanks to the existence of Netflix and other online sources of catch-up TV, and increased competition overall from other channels and the Internet. Counting the small sliver of homes that have Internet-connected TVs, but not cable, won’t make a big difference.
Then again, as Ms. McDonough put it, “It’s up to the networks to decide how best they want to monetize their content.”
This is a fascinating development. Yes, the networks should be very anxious, and it certainly will require some outside the box thinking about how to monetize what we all know is a growing trend.
For the NHL specifically, this is good news due to the demographic its fans occupy-- wired, techy, higher income, more likely to adopt newer technology rapidly, and so on.
Another interesting question is the one of territoriality, which was traditionally based on [antenna] viewing area, and thus physical geography. Internet access is rendering these classifications as null and void.
(@ Mods. Please leave as a separate thread from the NHL ratings tracking thread.)
Worth noting that cbc streams all their games for free; tsn streams Wednesday night hockey (I think, I know they did last year). Tsn also used to stream the wjc for free but this past tournament it was ppv online.
I'm a cord cutter, going way back. None of my televisions are "connected to the internet". Playstation, AppleTV, laptops, etc, all connect to an A/V receiver, which in turn connects to the TV with HDMI.
There is no way for Nielsen to track what is being displayed on my TV.
I often wondered.. couldn't there be software placed in every PVR/DVR out there to communicate back to cable providers everything that is being watched on that particular device - from live, to recorded shows.. how many times was recorded show watched?
Sure they wouldn't have specific demographic information (unless people volunteered it), but they would have a much greater level of information of viewership and habits.
Wouldn't this be allowed as long as the info was anonymous? Just seems too easy.
Wouldn't this be allowed as long as the info was anonymous? Just seems too easy.
That would require the DVR/PVR companies to be working directly with the cable providers. That has got to be some technically complicated breach of privacy issue that I can't even understand.
I often wondered.. couldn't there be software placed in every PVR/DVR out there to communicate back to cable providers everything that is being watched on that particular device - from live, to recorded shows.. how many times was recorded show watched?
Sure they wouldn't have specific demographic information (unless people volunteered it), but they would have a much greater level of information of viewership and habits.
Wouldn't this be allowed as long as the info was anonymous? Just seems too easy.
Yeah that would cross a line of privacy that I'm sure would never get through the courts. As much sense as it makes, it just can't be done.
I often wondered.. couldn't there be software placed in every PVR/DVR out there to communicate back to cable providers everything that is being watched on that particular device - from live, to recorded shows.. how many times was recorded show watched?
Sure they wouldn't have specific demographic information (unless people volunteered it), but they would have a much greater level of information of viewership and habits.
Wouldn't this be allowed as long as the info was anonymous? Just seems too easy.
I. Types of Information we collect and how we collect it
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"Anonymous Viewing Information" means information about use of your DIRECTV Receiver, DIRECTV interactive application, or Authorized Device that is not associated with or linked to your Account Information. For example, your DIRECTV Receiver regularly sends Anonymous Viewing Information to us. This information allows us to know, for example, that a subscriber from a particular city watched a show, but we cannot associate those viewing choices with you. Also, if you use a DIRECTV interactive application on an Authorized Device with location-based features enabled, we collect and use precise location data provided by the Authorized Device to customize certain programming and service options available to you through the interactive application. This location data does not personally identify you, but it does provide the real-time geographic location of your Authorized Device. You may request that we block the collection of Anonymous Viewing Information from your DIRECTV Receiver as described in Section IV below. Because DIRECTV does not control the hardware and software of the various Authorized Devices you may use to access DIRECTV programming or services, it may not be possible to block collection of Anonymous Viewing Information from all Authorized Devices.
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III. When we share Customer Information with third parties
We share Customer Information with third parties where it is necessary to conduct a legitimate business activity related to serving our customers, including as follows:
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Marketing: We may share Customer Information, including programming purchases, with selected media, entertainment, and other similar service providers, as well as with third parties with whom we offer co-branded or joint products or services. These third parties may use this Customer Information to market products or services to you.
Aggregated and Anonymous Viewing Information is information that does not identify you, and we may disclose aggregated and/or Anonymous Viewing Information and any derived analyses to third parties including suppliers, advertisers, broadcasters, research companies and other organizations, without limitation.
I would be very surprised if Comcast et al didn't do the same.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Jagorim Jarg
That would require the DVR/PVR companies to be working directly with the cable providers. That has got to be some technically complicated breach of privacy issue that I can't even understand.
The CableCos and Satellite providers are the DVR companies - the vast majority of DVRs are built in to the end user equipment you get from Comcast/DirecTV/etc.
