Cord cutting a trend? Nielsen to begin counting online streaming
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The company that measures television viewership said Thursday it will soon begin counting people who watch programming through broadband in addition to the traditional broadcast or cable hook-up.
Nielsen's move is a significant step toward recognizing a world where the definition of TV viewing is swiftly changing and toward satisfying clients concerned that the company isn't keeping up with those changes. Separately, Nielsen is developing ways to track content on tablets and mobile phones.
For many years, roughly 99 percent of homes in the U.S. had televisions that received service through broadcast, cable or satellite signals.
Now the number of homes without such service is 4.2 percent - and growing each year. An estimated three-quarters of those homes still have TVs, however, and their owners watch programming through game consoles or services like Netflix and Amazon. Starting September, Nielsen will have meters that can monitor viewership in those homes, said Brian Fuhrer, a senior vice president at Nielsen.
This will add roughly 160 homes to Nielsen's current sample of 23,000 houses nationwide with meters monitoring viewing habits.
More significantly, Nielsen will return to its sample to find homes that have cable or broadcast, but also separate TV sets hooked up through broadband. This will add an estimated 2,000 more broadband sets, significantly increasing the sample size, Fuhrer said.
"Consumers are accessing content in new ways that fall outside of our traditional definitions and if we don't expand ... we could be missing an emerging trend," he said.
The changes aren't likely to quickly boost the ratings of your favorite program, however. Most of the programs shown through broadband don't have the same encodings as shows watched traditionally, primarily because they often have different advertisements. As a result, Nielsen will be limited in tracking what particular shows are being watched, at least until more universal encoding standards are developed.
Some broadband services have the ability to measure how much individual programs are seen but keep that information private. It is why, for example, there have been no estimates of how many people have seen Netflix's well-reviewed new series "House of Cards."
Even without those specifics, Nielsen will be still able to collect information such as who in the household is watching through broadband, and how much they watch. That is data that will at least be valuable to advertisers and marketers trying to target specific consumer groups. Nielsen's change was first reported in The Hollywood Reporter.
Nielsen must also develop a separate metering system for tablets and mobile devices, and Fuhrer said that work is ongoing.
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"Trend Compass".
TC is a new concept in viewing statistics & trends in an animated way
by displaying in one chart 5 axis (X, Y, Time, Bubble size & Bubble
color) instead of just the traditional X and Y axis. Discover trends
hidden in spreadsheets. It could be used in analysis, research,
presentation etc. In different business sectors, to name a few we
have Deutsche Bank, NBC Universal, RIM, Vanguard Institutional
Investor, Ipsos, Princeton University as our clients.
Link on Drilling feature (Parent/Child) - Just double-click on any bubble:
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/drilling/
NBC presentation on TED using Trend Compass exported Videos on CNN
Money/Fortune:
http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2010/12/21/from-laughing-to-judging-in-fifty-years-the-evolution-of-televised-emotion/
Link on our new Geographical Trend Compass (Earthquake in Japan - Mag
vs Depth vs Time):
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/japan-earthquake
Link on Ads Monitoring on TV Satellite Channels.
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/tv-monitor/
Link on UK Master Card vs Visa performance :
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/mastercard_vs_visa/
Links on Funds:
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/best_exchange_traded_funds/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/us_insurance_funds/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/aaim_fund_performance/
Link on other KPIs :
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/hospital_performance/
Link on Chile's Earthquake (Feb 27th 2010):
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/EarthQuakeinChile/
Link on weather data :
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/aims/
Bank link to compare Deposits, Withdrawals and numbers of Customers
for different branches over time:
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/bank-trx/
Misc Examples :
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/airline/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/stockmarket1/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/football/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/swinefludaily/
http://www.epicsyst.com/test/v2/babyboomers/
Princeton University project on US unemployment :
http://www.epicsyst.com/main3.swf
A video presentation by Professor Alan Krueger Bendheim Professor of
Economics and Public Affairs at Princeton University and currently
Chief Economist at the US Treasury:
http://epicsyst.com/trendcompass/princeton.aspx?home=1
You can download a trial version. It has a feature to export
EXE,PPS,HTML and AVI files. The most impressive is the AVI since you
can record Audio/Video for the charts you create.
http://www.epicsyst.com/TrendCompass/FreeVersion/TrendCompassv1.2.2.zip
Video on Trend Compass:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzDCGB8xBq4&feature=related
Since we already develop 3D Virtual Reality applications, please find
below a link on a prototype for a new 3D VR Trend Compass application:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ueqULRUvikg&feature=related
Regards.
Amr Salah
Trend Compass Team
Epic Systems
www.epicsyst.com