Nielsen Exec: Don't Expect to Be Impressed by Impact of Mobile TV Ratings

Nielsen Media Research has declared itself "open for business" in terms of tracking TV viewing on smartphones, tablets and other electronic gadgets. But don’t expect those numbers, which will be available for the first time with the new fall broadcast season, to be impressive, statistically speaking.

"It will start small and build gradually," Cheryl Idell, Nielsen’s executive vice president of US media, said. “We won’t see dramatic changes in ratings with this data added in.”

That may not be the big splash the advertising community has been hoping for. Claire Browne, vice president and director of media research at ad agency RPA in Los Angeles, described Nielsen as "behind the curve" and "playing catch-up" on measuring mobile viewing, a project that’s been in the works for years.

"They have to do this to remain relevant," she said. "Consumer behavior is running so far ahead of the research."

The mobile data will come via software meters that have been embedded into media companies’ "watch anywhere" apps, Internet browsers and mobile devices themselves, Idell said. Those meters will identify pieces of content and report back on when and how those were watched, whether through a smartphone, iPad video app or other device.

Privacy encryption will reveal demographic but not personal tidbits about the viewer, who may opt out of the research. Nielsen will add the mobile viewing data to a TV show’s overall ratings to give a more accurate picture of how many people across the US watched an episode of The Walking Dead or a season of CSI.