NEW YORK and SAN FRANCISCO,
December 17, 2012 – Nielsen, a leading global provider of information and insights into
what consumers watch and buy, and Twitter today announced an exclusive
multi-year agreement to create the “Nielsen Twitter TV Rating” for the US
market. Under this agreement, Nielsen and Twitter will deliver a
syndicated-standard metric around the reach of the TV conversation on Twitter,
slated for commercial availability at the start of the fall 2013 TV season.
“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, Global Media Products and Advertiser Solutions at
Nielsen. “As a media measurement leader we recognize that Twitter is the
preeminent source of real-time television engagement data.”
“Our users love the shared
experience of watching television while engaging with other viewers and show
talent. Twitter has become the world's digital water cooler, where
conversations about TV happen in real time. Nielsen is who the networks rely on
to give better content to viewers and clearer results to marketers,” said Chloe
Sladden, Twitter’s vice president of media. “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.”
TV viewers discuss TV on Twitter,
creating a new dynamic between audiences and programming. The service’s more
than 140 million active users send one billion Tweets every two and a half
days, the vast majority of which is public and conversational, making Twitter
data a necessity in producing standardized metrics representing online and
mobile conversations about television.
The Nielsen Twitter TV Rating will
serve to complement Nielsen’s existing TV ratings, giving TV networks and
advertisers the real-time metrics required to understand TV audience social
activity. These ratings will build on top of NM Incite’s SocialGuide audience
engagement analytics platform. NM Incite is a joint venture between Nielsen and
McKinsey & Co., and the hub of Nielsen’s social media analytics efforts.
“The proliferation of smartphones
and tablets has generated a substantial ‘connected’ TV audience that is
simultaneously watching television and accessing the Internet through these
devices. This, in turn, will continue to create the opportunity for content
providers like CBS to offer engaging interactive features
for our viewers. As this form of
viewer engagement evolves into a mainstream activity, it presents ways for CBS
to enhance the viewing experience for our viewers and our advertisers. We are
already engaged with Nielsen and Twitter in a program of research and
experimentation in this exciting new area,” said David F. Poltrack, Chief
Research Officer, CBS Corporation. “We are pleased to see Nielsen and Twitter
join together to provide a comprehensive measurement system that will allow us
to employ these social networking tools to their full advantage."
“Twitter is a powerful messenger
and a lot of fun for fans of our shows, providing them with the opportunity to
engage, connect and voice their opinions directly to each other and us,” said
Peter Rice, Chairman and CEO, Fox Networks Group. "Combining the instant
feedback of Twitter with Nielsen ratings will benefit us, program producers,
and our advertising partners.”
ABOUT THE NIELSEN TWITTER TV
RATING
The Nielsen Twitter TV Rating will
enhance the social TV analytics and metrics available today from SocialGuide by
adding the first-ever measurement of the total audience for social TV activity –
both those participating in the conversation and those who were exposed to the
activity –providing the precise size of the audience and effect of social TV to
TV programming.
SocialGuide, recently acquired by
Nielsen and NM Incite, currently captures Twitter TV activity for all U.S.
programming across 234 TV channels in English and Spanish, and more than 36,000
programs. Through a sophisticated classification process, SocialGuide matches
Tweets to TV programs to offer key social TV metrics including the number of
unique Tweets associated with a given program and rankings for the most social
TV programs.
ABOUT NIELSEN
Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN)
is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions
in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement,
online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related properties. Nielsen
has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA
and Diemen, the Netherlands.
For more information, visit www.nielsen.com
and follow @nielsenwire.
ABOUT TWITTER
Founded in 2006, Twitter is a
real-time information service on which people around the world can post ideas,
comments and news, plus photos and videos, in 140 characters or less. The
service can be accessed through a variety of methods, including Twitter.com,
text messaging, and desktop, mobile, and web applications. Twitter is available
in more than 33 languages. Visit www.twitter.com or follow @twitter for more information.
