Baby steps, baby steps. Approximately 100,000 DirecTV households will become part of Nielsen's local TV ratings after the media tracker reached a deal with Kantar Media to collect viewing data from DirecTV (NASDAQ: DTV) set-top boxes in a number of markets.
Nielsen is using a hybrid methodology, which akes data from its National People Meter and combines it with data from STBs and elsewhere. The proprietary data gathering should move Nielsen away from its standard diary-based measurement still in use in many local TV markets.
Kantar Media's DirectView service provides viewing information, both live and time-shifted, from 100,000 national DirecTV households.
"DirectView is one of many sources of data Nielsen is incorporating in our efforts to provide higher quality local TV audience measurement," said Steve Hasker, president of Nielsen Media Products & Advertiser Solutions. "Our innovative approach to enhance local TV measurement addresses the technological limitations of using set-top box data alone, and we expect it will provide valuable benefits to local TV markets."
For more:
- see this MultiChannelNews article
Related articles:
Nielsen sues comScore alleging patent violations
ESPN, using Nielsen data, says cord-cutting is a 'very minor' nuisance
Nielsen's digital services head Bhatia jumps ship
Nielsen speeds up roll out of online-viewership measurement tool