Do The Neilson TV Ratings Matter Anymore?

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by Ron Schenone on 01/18/2011
No Responses (Thoughts?)

There was a time when Neilson reigned as the king of ratings and advertising money was dependant on where you ranked. But things have changed and the monopoly that Neilson once enjoyed is being challenged. Not because Neilson ratings no longer matter, but because people have left their couches for watching TV on portable devices. Even if you don’t own a portable device, you can still view TV programs on your computer at home or on the road. A few months ago I had a conversation  with a gentleman who had bought a laptop PC with a HDMI connector and was streaming TV programs to his HDTV. So how can Neilson come up with accurate ratings for a generation who is leaving the living room TV for mobile TV watching?
In a recent article it stated that:

Video viewing on Apple’s iPad and other mobile devices is exploding. Just last week, Google’s YouTube said its mobile video views tripled to 200 million in 2010.
Nielsen, the market leader in traditional TV ratings, is having a tough time tracking eyeballs elsewhere. It has yet to offer advertisers an accepted way of measuring viewers who watch video on their home computers — let alone on portable devices.
Although it is working on measuring video viewing on portable devices, Nielsen said it has no timeline for a rollout.

There are so many different ways today to watch TV programs that it may be difficult for Neilson to keep up. How can you monitor those of us who watch Hulu on their home PC or Hulu Plus on other streaming devices? How can one separate the change in viewing habits that is leaving the traditional TV watching habits stuck in the 1950’s?
Times are changing so fast in the mobile TV market that Neilson may be left in the dust trying to keep up.With companies like Apple, Google, Roku and others who are offering alternatives to traditional TV, 2011 should be the year we see major changes on how we watch the tube.
I know my next laptop computer will have a HDMI output so I can stream directly from Hulu to my HDTV.
How to you get your TV fix?