• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, March 23, 2006

Nielsen's No. 1 priority for the next couple of years isn't commercial ratings, TV time- or place-shifting, or even advancing its traditional in-home measurement of conventional TV--it's understanding the link between television and the Internet. The company plans to introduce a new method for measuring television programming viewed over the Internet by the end of this year, Susan Whiting, CEO of the TV ratings giant, told a roomful of the nation's biggest advertisers Wednesday during a presentation in New York.

Whiting, speaking during the 2006 edition of the Association of National Advertisers' Television Advertising Forum, did not elaborate on how Nielsen plans to provide the new data, but alluded to the new "portfolio" measurement strategy she outlined several weeks ago. Details of the portfolio plan, which is Nielsen's solution for "following the video" across all the platforms TV programming is and ultimately will be viewed on - everything from broadband downloads and streams to portable devices such as iPods - are expected to be unveiled in about two months, but an insider tells MediaDailyNews the Internet measurement solution will likely be made via a new "software" meter that would be installed in devices people use to watch TV content via the Internet. "It could be a computer or a smart phone," said the executive, "We're going to do it via software."

Software metering is not new, of course; it is the core method used by Nielsen//NetRatings, an Internet measurement service majority owned by Nielsen, a division of VNU, and it also is at the heart of a variety of new measurement methodologies, including the so-called "smart phone" metering system developed by Europe's Ipsos and licensed as part of The Media Audit's proposal for a new radio audience measurement system.

Nielsen's Whiting seemed to imply as much when she alluded to the portfolio plan: "I think you will see more and more combinations," including digital set-top data and "cell phones." However, she maintained that all these methods would continue to be "connected to a sample." Ensuring that Nielsen's sample-based measurement of television remains the coin of the realm is critical for Nielsen's continued dominance of the TV ratings marketplace. Without it, there would be little that would differentiate it from a sea of potential competitors developing similar new, state-of-the-art measurement technologies.

Beyond the push for measuring TV viewing done via the Internet, other key goals for the near term were expanding electronic measurement into Nielsen's local TV markets, increasing measurement of out-of-home viewing, and more "granularity" in commercial ratings, Whiting said.

She said Nielsen's current technology could ultimately get ratings down to 15-second intervals, making commercial ratings even more precise than the current "minute-by-minute" data it now provides. Whiting also said Nielsen plans to begin adding minute-by-minute ratings for time-shifted playback later this year, but did not say whether the process would include so-called "trick viewing" such as fast-forwarding through commercials, which is what most marketers really want to understand.

Regarding the use of time-shifted ratings in TV advertising deals, Whiting said she was "very neutral" and "that's between buyers and sellers."

Regarding commercial ratings, an instant poll of advertiser and agency executives at the ANA forum found that 84 percent are interested in making commercial ratings the "currency" for TV advertising buys.