Measurement company Nielsen is incorporating Facebook conversation — and eventually Instagram — into its service that tracks social media conversations about what people are watching on TV.
Nielsen’s Twitter TV Ratings will now be called “Social Content Ratings” to account for the change. It will be the first solution measure program-related conversation on Twitter and Facebook, including posts shared with friends and family, with followers, and publicly.
Social media conversation about original video programming from TV and over-the-top streaming providers will be measured for linear airtimes as well as on a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week basis.
But privacy people don’t need to panic: Nielsen won’t have access to read individual messages on Facebook, but it will access anonymous aggregate information. The metric doesn’t include private messages on the social network. Measurement will include social media authorship (e.g., posts, Tweets), engagement (e.g., comments, likes, replies, Retweets, shares), reach (audience and impressions) and demographics (age and gender) as available.
“The development of Social Content Ratings reflects Nielsen’s commitment to continually adapt our services to meet the needs of the industry and is part of Nielsen’s ongoing effort to evolve our measurement to reflect the total audience across screens and platforms,” said Sean Casey, president, Nielsen Social in a press release. “Nielsen Social measurement is evolving to provide a comprehensive, standardised picture of how consumers are responding to program content through social media, wherever and whenever.”
“Every day, television fans from around the world use Facebook to talk about the shows and stars they love with the people that matter most to them,” said Nick Grudin, director of media partnerships, Facebook. “Fans connect with each other while the show is airing and continue the conversation throughout the week in between episodes. We’re excited that Nielsen’s Social Content Ratings will now reflect the social conversation around television in its entirety.”
The expanded ratings are slated for commercial availability in the first half of 2016 and will be made available in the four markets where Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings are currently available (Australia, Italy, Mexico and U.S.).
