Nielsen announces new measurement called TVandPC

As technology evolves and creates new venues for audiences to find entertainment, it is wise to find a way to measure the impact.

Due to the growing popularity of online streaming of television, The Nielsen Company, self-described as the world’s leading marketing and media information company, is expanding its media measurement to include internet usage. It intends to have the measurement instated by August 2010. TVandPC, the name of this plan, will be the first single-source measure of viewing both online and television for the industry.

According to Spots n Dots, Nielsen will measure the internet usage across the national panel of US television users. At this time, 7,500 have allowed their online habits to be tracked. The national panel of viewers consists of about 18,000 households; the sample size represents about 12,000 computers and 20,000 people.

Other companies like CBS, NBC Universal, Time Warner, Viacom, and News Corp worked together to create a competitive measurement system called the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). This move is a large factor in Nielsen pushing forward with TVandPC.
One worry that Nielsen clients have for the new system is that TV viewers will change their TV habits if online usage measured.

As technology evolves and creates new venues for audiences to find entertainment, it is wise to find a way to measure the impact. That way, a client can track to see if the new venue is an effective addition to a campaign.

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