Nielsen, Twitter team up to establish social TV rating

Consumer research firm Nielsen and micro-blogging service Twitter have teamed up to measure and analyze what they called the "social TV audience." Nielsen and Twitter announced the exclusive multi-year agreement to create the “Nielsen Twitter TV Rating” initially for the US market. “The Nielsen Twitter TV Rating is a significant step forward for the industry, particularly as programmers develop increasingly captivating live TV and new second-screen experiences, and advertisers create integrated ad campaigns that combine paid and earned media,” said Steve Hasker, president of Nielsen's Global Media Products and Advertiser Solutions. “As a media measurement leader we recognize that Twitter is the preeminent source of real-time television engagement data,” he added. Under the agreement, Nielsen and Twitter will deliver a syndicated-standard metric around the reach of the TV conversation on Twitter. It is slated for commercial availability at the start of the fall 2013 TV season. The Nielsen Twitter TV Rating complements Nielsen’s TV ratings. It will build on top of NM Incite’s SocialGuide audience engagement analytics platform, which in turn is a joint venture between Nielsen and McKinsey & Co., and the hub of Nielsen’s social media analytics efforts. Digital water cooler Chloe Sladden, Twitter’s vice president of media, said Twitter users love the shared experience of watching television while engaging with other viewers and show talent. Sladden noted Twitter has become the world's digital water cooler, where conversations about TV happen in real time. “This effort reflects Nielsen's foresight into the evolving nature of the TV viewing experience, and we’re looking forward to collaborating with Twitter ecosystem partners on this metric to help broadcasters and advertisers create truly social TV experiences,” Sladden said. In a Twitter blog post, Sladden also said the “Nielsen Twitter TV Rating” is an industry-standard metric that is based entirely on Twitter data. "As the experience of TV viewing continues to evolve, our TV partners have consistently asked for one common benchmark from which to measure the engagement of their programming. This new metric is intended to answer that request, and to act as a complement and companion to the Nielsen TV rating," Sladden said. Twitter has more than 140 million active users who send one billion Tweets every two and a half days, majority of which is public and conversational. As such, Twitter data is a necessity in producing standardized metrics representing online and mobile conversations about television. — DVM, GMA News