Dive Brief:
- At the semi-annual Television Critics Association conference this week, Nielsen Executive Vice President of U.S. Media Cheryl Idell told attendees that data from tracking TV viewing on mobile devices will take some time to make a noticeable difference.
- Nielsen announced the new mobile TV ratings last fall and promised networks a more comprehensive idea of ratings across different platforms.
- The downside may be that Nielsen can only measure online views of the same version that appeared on TV — Netflix and Hulu can't be included because they either lack ads or run a different style.
Dive Insight:
User habits are changing faster than Nielsen or any other firm can keep up. It is unfortunate that the data could be disappointing initially because the metrics could prove very valuable if it works out. Hopefully for Nielsen, they can be nimble enough to provide the data networks want before a different firm figures out how to drive the measurement.
