Nielsen Ratings To Count Online TV Viewing

cashman73 writes "Several sources are reporting that Nielsen is finally going to start measuring online TV viewing. You would think that this is a good idea, since many people are now watching TV programs on the Internet. However, there's a catch: Nielsen's new service will only count viewings of a program with the same number of advertisements as the network TV model. So, this immediately eliminates Hulu, as well as any shows watched via the network's own websites. As a matter of fact, it would currently only include Comcast's XFinity TV service, and TV Everywhere (which, so far, appears to be the equivalent of Duke Nukem Forever for television). So either, (a) everyone will rush out to watch their online TV on Comcast XFinity, so that their viewing counts in the ratings (unlikely), or (b) Hulu and everyone else starts to put more advertisements on their shows (more likely, but would also probably mean the death of Hulu)."

Worth it?

[Anonymous Coward]

Why would hulu so badly want its content to count in Nielsen ratings that it would change its ad scheme?

Why do you say this?

[IANAAC]

(b) Hulu and everyone else starts to put more advertisements on their shows (more likely, but would also pro

For those of us with no cable and using only digital OTA, Hulu (and other online sites) replace a DVR. And I think we'd be willing to sit through commercials.

Call me cheap, but I would, at least.

Re:Why do you say this?

[RCGodward]

I wonder about this. I don't watch Hulu because it has fewer commercials or because I don't have cable. I watch Hulu because I miss a show and need to catch up, or I want to show someone the return of the Masturbating Bear. Every time Hulu thinks about adding a few more commercials I hear doom and gloom about the death of the site, but I really don't care all that much. I can't imagine I'm alone.

Worthless Media

[StormReaver]

My most recent cable TV outage started me thinking about televised entertainment in general. I still remember when cable TV was highly desirable because it didn't have any commercials. Then commercials made occasional appearances in some shows, obviously a trial balloon to measure customer opposition. Then commercials quickly became as prevalent on cable as they were on broadcast TV.

I have been using MythTV for a couple years, and it's been fantastic. I haven't had to sit through a full commercial in that time, and I'd been loving cable TV again. While I fast-forward through commercials (automatic commercial skip is too unreliable), I sometimes saw something that grabbed my attention. In those cases, I usually watched at least a part of the commercial, and discovered a new product. Most often, though, I saved myself centuries (qualitatively speaking) of agony by not having to watch them.

When I got engaged, she and I had better things to do with our time than watch TV. Three weeks into our first month together, I realized that I hadn't missed TV at all, but was still paying $60/month for something I hardly used. I called Mediacom (the local cable company), and canceled the "service" last week.

At the same time, I subscribed to Netflix. For a fraction of the cost of cable, I have a vast choice of movies, a much smaller monthly bill, more reliable service, and a much happier experience overall experience.

When I first tried Hulu, it was an okay service. I had to sit through a couple 7-10 second commercials every half hour, but that wasn't too intolerable. Then Hulu started lengthening the commercials to 30 seconds. It was still not terribly intolerable, because there was usually only one of them every half hour. Then I started seeing two appear every half hour, and it became clear to me which direction Hulu was headed, so I stopped watching Hulu.

I'm at a point now where I watch TV only during tornadic weather, and only to watch the news coverage to track the storms. My fiancé and I watch one movie a night in bed before going to sleep, and that's it. We have freed ourselves from television, and we have advertisers' greed to thank for that. We don't miss TV one bit.

So, Nielson won't count online TV viewing unless its riddled with commercials. If Hulu ever starts to be counted, you can be sure that it has become a worthless service. As far as I'm concerned, it has already become a worthless service.

Re:Worth it?

[theJML]

You know what... In either case they're still not very good at getting ratings. They never asked me, or any one I know for that matter. It really seems like there has to be a better way to figure out if people are watching your show or not.

Re:Wake me up when...

[jebrew]

because if they saw the number of people viewing this way, they might (as in unicorns exist kinda might) start releasing their own high quality downloads with the ads in them...hell, I'd watch the ads just because I'm too lazy to skip past them.

Re:Makes sense

[tomuo]

Wrong. TIVO has had a relationship with Neilsen for a few years already. When I had a TIVO, they asked me if I wanted to be a Neilsen TIVO user, which I agreed to. TIVO updated the OS to a special version shortly after. The usual Neilsen behaviour rules applied: please use the TIVO remote to turn the TV set on and off so they don't count the time playing to an empty audience.