Nielsen ratings give credit for Facebook, YouTube and Hulu views
Media ratings giant Nielsen announced today that publishers will now get credit for digital video content aired on Facebook, Hulu and YouTube. “Through capturing this audience, Nielsen is providing publishers, agencies and advertisers with a better picture of today’s media consumption, with comparable metrics,” said Nielsen’s president of product leadership, Megan Clarken, in a statement.
Nielsen launched its Digital Content Ratings metric last September and it measures audiences utilizing desktop and mobile devices to consume a range of digital content including text like Facebook Instant Articles and videos on YouTube. Today’s announcement means that publishers will now get credit for the metrics Nielsen has been tracking. This includes content like TV clips aired on YouTube and short-form videos posted on Facebook. In regards to Hulu, Nielsen says that the platform will provide “select media partners” with credit for episodes of currently running series that air on Hulu. Those select media partners haven’t been announced yet, but it wouldn’t be surprising if they’re Hulu stakeholders like NBC Universal and Disney.
In a statement, Nielsen said, “Now, both TV and digital clients enabled for Digital Content Ratings will be able to display viewership of their content across all platforms, including these key digital distributors. This will allow publishers to better showcase the various ways people watch their digital content, as well as provide agencies and advertisers with valuable data for more informed decision making.”
Recently, Nielsen added both Hulu’s and YouTube’s live TV services to its traditional TV ratings and last year, it began breaking down viewership data by device. Those moves along with today’s announcement represent the company’s necessary shift in metrics to account for the changing ways people are seeking out and viewing content.
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