Nielsen steps into the digital age – finally

Ssssh, can you hear that?

That’s the collective cheer of television fans and critics alike.

The celebrating is thanks to ratings tabulator Nielsen announcing that they will start accumulating and publishing viewing figures from online television streaming. The plan comes after television industry and media heavyweights got together in September and called for rating-collection reform of any sort – so much that they were willing to open up the bank accounts in these trying times to propel the changes forward. 

Nielsen’s plan, which will use meters that will most certainly monitor the major web streaming locations such as Hulu, Fancast and official network sites, is currently scheduled to unspool in August of 2010, a full year ahead of schedule. The initiative will cover 7,500 national-people-meter homes, representing about 20,000 people and 12,000 computers.

It’s not an overwhelming figure, but it is based on how Nielsen does all its tabulation, so at least they are being consistent.

Though this might not sound like that exciting of news, everyone who watches television will benefit from this plan. As online streaming has become more and more accepted by the networks and accessible to audiences, it has gone completely uncollected.

While that does not feel like a big deal, it is because as online streaming increases, television ratings have decreased.

And so the networks and advertisers have had only television ratings (both live and DVR, thank goodness) in front of them when making important decisions – as in what programs get to stay on the air.

Thus, if a program faced extenuating circumstances that did not attract audiences to it when it aired – bad time slot, sports, etc. – but had a major online viewing rate, it didn’t matter. 

Obviously Hulu and all the individual networks have known how many viewers they’ve had online to a t, but everyone has kept it to themselves.

This leads to a slew of speculation about a program’s streaming rate, with fans of struggling programs clamoring that they “know it’s got a huge number because everyone watches it online.”

But no one outside the doors of these media powers has known anything, and that is not really fair.

The television ratings are public knowledge for a reason – so folks in and outside the industry know what’s popular, what’s not, what’s trending and who’s watching what. With the viewership moving to a new medium, it is time that the Nielsen figures (however flawed it may be) follow them there. 

Hopefully this move signals interesting developments and conversations for the television industry.

Maybe a few more programs will be saved because their online figures are better and maybe a few idiots crying on Twitter about their favorite’s online presence will be forced to find something else to cry about.

Nevertheless, for a system that is always behind in reacting to important technological advancements, any new plans from Nielsen are welcomed with open arms.