• by Wayne Friedman , June 15, 2010

Las Vegas, NV - Nielsen will be ramping up its efforts to measure all new video screens -- as well as starting up a new set-top-box test.

Nielsen will have set-top-box tests in three different-size markets -- St. Louis, Mo; Reno, Nv; and Greenville, SC. -- in the coming months. The results will be revealed this fall, says Matt O'Grady, executive vice president of media audience measurement for The Nielsen Company, in a presentation at Nielsen's Consumer 360 conference here.

Nielsen will analyze set-top-box data against three different types of local TV measuring services it offers: a people meter market (St. Louis); a diary TV market, (Reno, Nev.); and a set meter box market (Greenville, South Carolina).

O'Grady noted, as many executives have in the past, the positives of set-top-box data, such as a bigger scale of homes than currently exists in many TV panels, second-by-second measurement and possible advertising addressability.

Nielsen is also making progress concerning its single-source TV/ computer service that is adding a 'Net meter' to computers in homes that comprise Nielsen's existing 20,000 people meters panel. So far, O'Grady says 7,000 computer meters have been installed. There will be more testing in the fall, moving to an official rollout in February 2011.

Will this video be counted -- at least under the current national TV metric -- as C3, commercial ratings plus three days of DVR playback?

If the video content via the computer has Nielsen encoding, and the online commercial load matches the traditional TV commercial load, credit will be given for that computer video view, says O'Grady.

Later in the session, O'Grady admitted this was a problem; most online video commercials presently don't match traditional TV commercial loads. "We do give credit for program viewing," he says.

Nielsen is also moving toward grabbing mobile video usage. It is recruiting a panel for four of the top smartphone platforms, including the iPhone, and Android-base models. "We will be recruiting from our online panel," says O'Grady. "It will be a single-source panel. We believe we are ahead of the curve."

O'Grady says Nielsen will be able to track applications happening on mobile and online. Currently, 25% of mobile users have smartphones; Nielsen expects 50% penetration of smartphones in 2012.