NEW YORK – On December 11th, Nielsen Media Research will begin to measure nationally distributed video on demand content, in part to figure out how VOD viewership of certain programs compare to their airing on conventional channels.
Using the same National People Meter sample it uses to provide television ratings to national programmers, it will rate VOD, too. As with Nielsen’s current ratings, clients will receive household and demographic ratings for VOD content along with other detailed audience information. "By measuring VOD content in its national ratings panel, Nielsen will enable clients, for the first time, to compare the performance of programs airing on traditional channels with the performance of those same programs on demand," says the press release.
Don’t expect the same service to come to Canada just yet, however. "Because of the relatively low penetration of VOD in Canada (and smaller overall audience sizes in comparison to the States) it isn’t currently feasible, but as the penetration increases it will probably be something we will consider," Tom Jenks, of Canadian TV ratings consortium BBM Nielsen Media Research, told Cartt.ca this week.
South of the border, however, Nielsen will be able to provide VOD reporting to clients who implement “watermarking,” or audio code, technology that identifies specific on-demand titles. Working in conjunction with clients, Nielsen has developed the encoding tools to uniquely watermark VOD content so that Nielsen’s newly deployed active/passive meter can accurately identify on-demand viewing sessions.
Nielsen’s launch of VOD measurement "ushers in a new level of reporting for all types of video on demand programming, including titles from the libraries of content providers and recently telecast programs shown again via VOD," says the company’s release.
New broadcast and cable network programming that is played back via VOD is already included in Nielsen’s time-shifted viewing ratings, but only if the programming content and advertising is the same as is in the original live telecast.
“Because video on demand is a growing business and a potentially valuable new revenue stream for programmers, it is increasingly important for them to understand who is watching their shows and to be able to compare the viewing that is being done via traditional television and VOD,” said Scott L Brown, senior vice-president of Nielsen. “With this launch, we continue to ‘follow the video’ wherever it is broadcast, while fulfilling a commitment we made to clients who told us last year that VOD measurement was a major priority for them. Nielsen will be working with clients to make sure they install our watermarking technology so we can identify both their library content and their new, recently presented programs shown via VOD.”
