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Nielsen to Offer Fourth Set of DVR Data

Published on October 20, 2005 | Email this article
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Nielsen Media Research, which has previously announced it would provide three streams of ratings data in late December to deal with the lagging effects of DVR playback, has announced that it will add a fourth stream specifically for journalists who track the TV ratings system, Mediapost reports. The original plan was already complicated, and had buyers and sellers struggling to decide which set will be used as the currency of TV ad deals, particularly since they are beginning to plan for the 2007 uprfront advertising marketplace.

 

The original three streams announced by Nielsen were: one of live-only viewing minus any DVR playback, another that would provide live viewing plus the first day of DVR playback, and a third that would provide live viewing plus seven days of DVR playback.

Because journalists are unlikely to wait an additional week for the live-plus seven days of DVR data to be compiled, the fourth stream will be comprised of the average of all ratings data for all but the last week, which would be based only on live viewing minus any DVR playback.

Media buyers want live viewing data, because advertisers are unsure of how much of the DVR playback might be fast-forwarding through commercials. But TV sales executives want to base deals on seven days’ worth of DVR playback viewing.

USA Today, known for its coverage of Nielsen stats, has not decided yet which data it will use.

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