• by Joe Mandese , March 14, 2011

Nielsen is taking another step toward redefining what constitutes TV programs online, informing clients on Friday that it will now allow them to derive online audience estimates for TV shows that do not run the same national promotional spots or local TV commercials online, effective with the release of its new "Extended Screen" ratings on May 16.

Nielsen had originally planned to provide such ratings only for TV programming served online with all of their original ads and promos intact. More recently, it said it would eventually enable clients to access online audience estimates for TV programming served online with different ads and/or promo spots. In Friday's announcement, it said it would immediately enable clients to derive Extended Screen ratings for TV shows served online that also digitally insert new ads in the places where national promos and local TV ads had originally aired.

"Based on client requests for more flexibility, we are pleased to announce that for our initial release, effective with data for April 25, clients may remove nationally televised promotions and local advertising windows or insert un-encoded digital ads over them," Nielsen said in a notice sent to clients on Friday.

Nielsen said its Extended Screen ratings were originally designed to mirror the C3 ratings that are currently the standard for the national TV marketplace, and noted that C3 network promos and local ads were never part of its original C3 ratings and confirmed they would not be part of the Extended Screen ratings either.

Nielsen said it would enable clients to derive Extended Screen ratings for TV shows that carry different national commercials online by the end of June.

Nielsen said it was taking these steps to, "To accommodate additional online business models in which different commercials are digitally inserted into TV programs when they're served online."

While many Nielsen clients have been pushing for the release of the Extended Screen ratings, and to allow them to have greater flexibility in terms of the advertising that appears with shows viewed online, a number of Nielsen clients believe Nielsen may be moving too fast to redefine TV audience estimates to include online viewing.