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Facebook Delivers Viewer Engagement Reports To TV Networks

Posted by Unknown on from the you-are-still-the-product dept.

cagraham writes "Facebook has started delivering custom weekly reports to select TV networks, detailing the total amount of social interactions related to individual TV episodes.According to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is using its data analytics to track the amount of times an episode is liked, shared, or mentioned each week. The data is then anonymized and delivered to networks. This comes a week after Twitter announced they were pursuing deals with major networks as well. Facebook may be trying to establish itself as a modern alternative to the traditional Nielsen ratings system, the current benchmark for gauging viewership."

10 of 45 comments (clear)

  1. Breaking Bad by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 4, Funny

    If my 'feed' is anything to go by, the entire planet was watching "Breaking Bad" last night.

    1. Re:Breaking Bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I had never even heard of Breaking Bad until the last few weeks when suddenly a stupid television show became front page news. Must be a slow news month, or more likely standards have just hit a new low for what passes as "news" these days.

    2. Re:Breaking Bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Ummmm... watching one of the best shows ever rather than reality TV is GOOD thing. They might actually be people worth knowing.

  2. Who gives a fuck? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Seriously, marketing research groups could be gleaning this kind of data from Slashdot too if they wanted to but no one gives a fuck. How much do people know about you from your Slashdot profile? Only as much as you let them know. Why are "social network" sites held up to a different standard?

    1. Re:Who gives a fuck? by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Informative

      Seriously, marketing research groups could be gleaning this kind of data from Slashdot too if they wanted to but no one gives a fuck. How much do people know about you from your Slashdot profile? Only as much as you let them know. Why are "social network" sites held up to a different standard?

      Well, I suspect that I'm talking to a particularly belligerent wall here; but somebody else might read it: 'social' networks are explicitly and fundamentally, designed to produce profiles based both on what you provide and what people you have real-world connections with provide (eg. people who don't even have facebook accounts; but are still tagged and machine-visioned in the image libraries of people who do). Your Slashdot-type profile is probably more vulnerable to a clever analyst than casual inspection would suggest; but the value of information provided by 3rd parties on the system about you is overwhelmingly lower, leaving the question of how 'knowable' you are much more in your hands.

      Also, of course, 'real name' policies are a fairly obvious attempt to both extirpate dupes and ACs (presumably because the quality of discussion is already low enough, and because uniques with attached data are worth more as eyeballs); but also quash pseudonyms in the process. Again, many pseudonyms are vulnerable to clever or sustained attack; but in casual use they allow the virtues of consistent 'characters' to emerge (Yeah, that guy, he impersonates a fungus on the internet. Fucked if I know...); but leaves it up to you whether to connect that to other parts of your life or not. Some people use pseudonyms; some use pseudonyms by preference but make little or no effort to hide who they are, some post under their real names, up to you.

  3. Not Scientific Sample by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Networks want people to watch their shows so those same people watch commercials. They want ratings from Nielsen so they have a well respected third party estimating the eyeballs each commercial gets to justify advertising rates. Facebook's report doesn't provide that.

    Besides, this is clearly a self-selecting sample. There may be some tiny value to the networks in assessing popularity, but Nielsen Ratings will still remain king because they actually attempt to identify "C+3 ratings", the number of viewers who watch commercials within three days, via random sampling.

  4. Does this account for FB thumbs-downs? by themushroom · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The old saying is that if you had a good experience you'll tell one person but if you have a bad experience you'll tell ten. Does this system take the word "sucked" after the name of a program into account? Because if networks think that everyone's watching Stupid Sitcom because people have been talking about how inane the commercials make it out to be, they're missing the point. Nielsen monitors how many people change the channel, while going by Facebook results (by tally, not by content) doesn't represent those click-offs.

    Not that I care if a network making a crappy show thinks it's hot shit or anything, but they could be giving more airtime to underrated good shows rather than putting more emphasis on lousy shows everyone's dissing on.

    --
    Laughter is the Spackle of the Soul.
  5. Re:Nielsen must be freaking out by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm honestly a bit surprised that Nielsen is still alive. They are the landline-polling of TV audience metrics. On the pure TV/content industry hell side, you've got things like Tivos and cable boxes, which tend not to leave HQ guessing about who is watching what(Remember Tivo's casual little announcement that 'nipplegate' was the most rewound event in history? What've you got, Nielsen?) On the internet side, you've got your assorted 'social' gatekeepers and search jockeys, who pretty much see every word you type a few hundred milliseconds after you do, and are thus well placed to see who's talking about what.

    Where does the exhaustive sample of 'Nielson households' fit in here?

  6. About time. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Privacy issues aside, this can only be a good thing. The Nielsen system has been responsible for the death of many a good show before its time.

  7. Re:Nielsen must be freaking out by grahamm · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why do networks love it when people comment online in realtime? if someone is sending tweets or posting on Facebook then the show is not holding their attention. Unless they are waiting for the ad breaks to post online, in which case they are not paying attention to the advertisers.