Audience tracker Nielsen shifts with the times

Television audience tracker Nielsen Media Research has unveiled plans to expand coverage to the internet, mobile phones and other gadgets as it adapts to the changing ways people view TV.

The move by Nielsen and sister company Netratings, on whose research TV networks, websites and advertisers rely for setting their advertising rates, could bring changes to the TV industry as people increasingly watch shows outside the home or on computer, mobile devices and cellphones.

The testing, which also looks at viewership in restaurants and expands the use of electronic metering to smaller TV markets, could also change the way viewership figures are tallied, and might result in shifts in the use of advertising dollars.

The plan by Nielsen, which is owned by information provider VNU, is called Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement, or A2/M2. It will roll out over the next several years, starting with test programs this summer.

"A2/M2 is the result of extensive consultation with clients, who told us we should deliver integrated measurement of all television-like content regardless of [the delivery] platform," Nielsen chief executive Susan Whiting said.

Nielsen is unrivalled in the United States for its TV viewership research, and it counts all major networks there as clients.

Nielsen and VNU own the majority of web tracker NetRatings Inc, and their venture Nielsen/NetRatings is supplying internet data.

Next year Nielsen will be installing software on computers owned by sample audiences who now have its People Meters linked to their TVs.

The goal is to create a single group that will measure combined TV and web viewing.

Nielsen hopes to have this system fully in homes for the 2007/2008 broadcast season, which starts in September 2007.

To help the launch, Nielsen/Netratings will begin offering combined, or "fused", data to clients this summer.

The plan calls for Nielsen to begin metering televisions in restaurants, bars and other places people gather to watch shows. By 2011, Nielsen also hopes to have replaced paper diaries and logs in smaller cities with electronic meters.

Nielsen continues to work on devices that will measure viewership on new portable devices such as cellphones and Apple's video iPod.

It expects to create a 400-person panel of iPod users by the end of next year.

- REUTERS