Is the goal to see how many people watch the show or how many people watch the commercials?
You hit the nail on the head. Nielsen provides products (such as Ad*Views and NPOWER) where clients can zoom in on data for just commercials or just content. However, the "currency" data that the MRC has accredited for use in determining commercial pricing doesn't distinguish between them. Before DVRs, it was rather difficult to pass the "currency" minimums without watching commercials. With DVRs it's commonplace. We can't tell the MRC what to do, but we can at least help to keep the "currency" what it is, hence the Live and Live+SD feeds which in theory will measure DVR playback while still catching the commercials.
I think it would be better for the television producers to track the content watching rather than the advertisement watching which would be better for the sponsors.
That goes without question. On the other hand, it's better for the sponsors/advertisers to know that their money isn't getting wasted on a show where nobody's watching the commercials. Historically, Nielsen's been the medium that the two sides agree on. Now the "currency" is shifting toward the content providers and the advertisers are getting left behind.
If it is the commercials only, why would you be interested in bittorrented shows without product placements?
Syndicators are always watching for shows that they can sell. If something does well in non-commercial media then that might factor in to their decision to sell it to distributors. South Park and Sex & The City are shining examples of how that works in that they both started as independant non-commercial programs which were later were syndicated to sponsored cable distributors.
(disclosure: I am a Nielsen employee based out of their GTIC facility in Florida. Beautiful place BTW.)
In the past, Nielsen has recorded time shifting as viewing. After all, why go through the trouble of setting your VCR to record a show if you're not going to watch it? And then TiVo had to mess it all up. It constantly records things you don't even ask for. Even if you do end up watching it eventually, it could be a week or a month later.
C|Net missed the real story here, which is how this turned the delicate balance of power between advertisers and content providers upside-down and how Nielsen's reinventing itself to keep time shifting from destroying the television industry. But that's OT.
Now there's Live, Live+SD, and Live+7 feeds as described in the article. The bad part about it is that practically overnight we have to process three times the data we did before, and our delivery windows were tight enough as it was. The good part about it is that we're no longer dependant on the tuner.
No TV? No problem! Here's your A/P meter. Now you can get your content from cable, DVRs, iPods, or *gasp* BitTorrent. It's not our business to know what you've recorded/downloaded/uploaded. It is our business to report on if you actually watch the darned thing (and then only if you've signed up as a Nielsen Home).
That said, we're not quite there yet. Right now we're focused on DVRs, but with this shift in our business makes the rest of it possible.
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While you're at it, tell your congressman to kill off H.R.3298 and S.1372 so we can actually do it.
Is Nielsen interested in BT?
Short answer: Yes, no, and maybe.
(disclosure: I am a Nielsen employee based out of their GTIC facility in Florida. Beautiful place BTW.)
In the past, Nielsen has recorded time shifting as viewing. After all, why go through the trouble of setting your VCR to record a show if you're not going to watch it? And then TiVo had to mess it all up. It constantly records things you don't even ask for. Even if you do end up watching it eventually, it could be a week or a month later.
C|Net missed the real story here, which is how this turned the delicate balance of power between advertisers and content providers upside-down and how Nielsen's reinventing itself to keep time shifting from destroying the television industry. But that's OT.
Now there's Live, Live+SD, and Live+7 feeds as described in the article. The bad part about it is that practically overnight we have to process three times the data we did before, and our delivery windows were tight enough as it was. The good part about it is that we're no longer dependant on the tuner.
No TV? No problem! Here's your A/P meter. Now you can get your content from cable, DVRs, iPods, or *gasp* BitTorrent. It's not our business to know what you've recorded/downloaded/uploaded. It is our business to report on if you actually watch the darned thing (and then only if you've signed up as a Nielsen Home).
That said, we're not quite there yet. Right now we're focused on DVRs, but with this shift in our business makes the rest of it possible.