Nielsen to Incorporate Mobile Viewing into TV Ratings

NEW YORK: Nielsen has taken another step forward in its efforts to incorporate audiences viewing TV content on digital devices into traditional TV measurement for the 2014-15 TV season, by now including mobile viewership.

Nielsen confirmed to clients that it will make the software developer kit (SDK) that enables this measurement available for implementation in mid-November. This unified encoding approach for video enables measurement to follow content across screens and ad models. If a broadcaster makes a TV show available for viewing on a digital device and it meets the ad load and timeline requirements for TV ratings, then that viewing will credit to the Nielsen TV ratings. If that content is not eligible for TV ratings, then the viewing of it will be included in Nielsen Digital Ratings, specifically Nielsen Digital Program Ratings for content ratings and Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings for the ad rating.

“We’ve been working hard to deliver this new SDK and are excited to be able to deliver a single client solution that supports both the linear (TV style) and dynamic (Internet style) ad models," said Megan Clarken, the executive VP and global product leader at Nielsen. "This unified encoding approach for video enables measurement to follow content across screens and ad models."