Most of us watch TV in one form or another, but many people have been cutting the cord and diving headfirst into streaming services. Recently, YouTube and Hulu have debuted their own plans for streaming live TV channels, and starting today, one of the biggest names in television is starting to track those services.
Nielsen TV ratings have been a long-standing method of determining the success of a TV show on any given network, but it has only focused on traditional methods of viewing TV to measure those ratings. By adding YouTube TV and Hulu’s live TV service to the fold, it gives online streaming a bit more credit (via TechCrunch).
This isn’t the first time Nielsen has taken streaming into account, but previously that only included streaming from traditional network services such as CBS All Access. Nielsen’s President of Product Leadership Megan Clarken says that “This is the first time the biggest digital-first, TV streaming companies have come into the fold in terms of being included in TV ratings” and that the move reflects how viewership has changed in recent years.
Clarken says that this data will be used in Nielsen’s C3/C7 numbers which ad buyers use to determine viewership of a given program. YouTube TV and Hulu may not be the only services measured here either, as Clarken mentioned that “the doors are open for those players who want to be lined up side-by-side and measured in a comparable way to traditional TV.”
