When you watch shows online, does it count toward the Neilson ratings?

Question

I don't mean Tivo or DVR...i'm not sure about those. I mean going to the Network site like NBC or ABC and watching the episodes they provide the following day. Thanks!

I got the answer as 'No' So, do the Networks even look at the online viewership and take that into consideration when deciding to keep a show on the air?

Answer 1

While I am not going to do any significant research on this to support my point, I know for a fact that the online networks both track and pay close attention to online viewership. This is done for several reasons, not the least among them for advertising purposes. Neilson is currently developing a platform to track this data as well, and over the next few months it will be much more prevalent and covered by mainstream news media. I think your question is concerned about the effect of Neilson ratings, which play only one part of why a show is or is not picked up.

TIVO and DVR are a little trickier, in part because they function like a VCR. Similarly, DVD sales are also taken into consideration when reviewing a borderline show, but are hard to track. The Family Guy is probably the best example of how such sales can drive a show back to mainstream television, but I would say that is the exception rather than the norm.

At the same time, the data is only really tracked when you watch it on the network's website or service provider (e.g., video on demand or iTunes/Amazon's tv services). Since many shows are available through alternative means, viewing on non-licensed sites has two problems: (1) it creates a legal gray area; and more important to the "success" of a show, (2)makes near impossible a means for the network to gauge viewership and popularity from a ratings perspective. Just things to think about.

Answer 2

No, the Nielsen ratings only count the ratings of the homes who have their boxes and just recently have started counting Tivo in their calculations. They have not found a way to incorporate online viewings into the ratings yet.

We can only hope that the networks do look at more than just the Nielsen ratings when they decide the fate of their shows but that is what they consider most important. I don't believe they have found a way to accurately account for how many times their shows have been viewed online yet. I don't think random sampling is enough to account for what everyone watches. They need to start counting what everyone watches. The cable companies and satellite companies have a way to track that stuff so they should utilize that instead of just going by what the Nielsen Ratings pick up. It really isn't an accurate account of the nation's viewing habits since they're not in every home. It's like having a clinical trial for a drug and testing it out on 5 different people and then saying yeah, it works for everybody. It's a skewed and innacurate account. Hopefully, Nielsen's decision to count Tivo will help to show more accurate ratings.

Answer 3

You have to have the Neilson equipment to be counted in the ratings which really isn't fair to all the shows that don't get counted.

I think to be a fair and unbiased account that every television, NOT just every home should have the boxes because not everyone in each house watches the same thing.

I think the way the networks do it is by which companies buy commercial time for their shows. Of course, advertising companies are going to want to show their commercials during the shows that the ratings say get the most viewers.

I watch Heroes, Grey's Anatomy, and Big Shots online and they have commercials on them.