Today, Nielsen, who is primarily responsible for measuring and providing ratings of television programs, announced that they will now publish viewership information on programming produced by streaming services. This is an important first for the company and for the public. Since 2014, Nielsen has only counted viewership of streamed programs and reported it to the companies that stream them. Companies, like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon, usually like to keep the information a secret.
Eight television networks, including ABC and NBC, have subscribed to their new service. People can now learn demographic information on a show’s audience, like which programs are more appealing to young people. One set back is that so far Nielsen can only measure streaming viewership on television, and not on mobile devices.
Between 12 and 13 percent of television consumption now consists of streamed programs. Half of that are shows on Netflix. They have yet to sign onto the service and a representative declined to comment on the announcement.
