Nielsen now factors social media shares into television ratings

Nielsen today announced that it is expanding Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings to include Facebook conversation for the first time. With measurement of program-related conversation across these two social networking services at launch, and plans to integrate Instagram at a later date, Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings will become Nielsen’s “Social Content Ratings.” Nielsen’s Social Content Ratings will be the first solution to measure aggregate-level program-related conversation on Facebook and Twitter, including posts shared with friends and family, with followers, and publicly. The expanded ratings are slated for commercial availability in the first half of 2016 and will be made available in all markets where Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings are currently available (Australia, Italy, Mexico and U.S.). “The development of Social Content Ratings reflects Nielsen’s commitment to continually adapt our services to meet the needs of the industry and is part of Nielsen’s ongoing effort to evolve our measurement to reflect the total audience across screens and platforms,” said Sean Casey, President, Nielsen Social. “Nielsen Social measurement is evolving to provide a comprehensive, standardized picture of how consumers are responding to program content through social media, wherever and whenever.”