Most TV Tweets During Live Show, Reality TV Highest

by Wayne Friedman , November 23, 2015

Nearly 60% of weekly Twitter impressions in reference to TV shows come from users seeing tweets related to live TV airings.

Nielsen says that on specific days when these programs are not airing live, just 33% of TV-related tweets are sent in response to program content. During live airings this number jumps to 65%.

Weekly Twitter impressions are the highest for reality shows -- at 67%. Drama is at 58%, while comedy stands at 49%.

Those who author tweets during live airings send twice as many tweets as those who tweet when a program is not airing live.

Productive tweet authors, sending live and non-live missives, make up 8% of weekly program authors. They can send five times as many tweets per author during live airings compared to authors who only tweet when programs are not airing live.

This data comes from Nielsen analysis of 96 weekly series programs on English- and Spanish-language broadcast and cable networks airing episodes between August 31 through Oct. 25, 2015.

Twitter TV activity and reach comes from two weeks of each program tracked on a 24/7 basis, including linear tracking three hours before through three hours after live program air times.

media measurement, social media, television, twitter

5 comments about "Most TV Tweets During Live Show, Reality TV Highest ".

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Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, November 24, 2015 at 9:51 a.m.
Interestingly, the Nielsen release never mentions the actual amount of tweeting that takes place----only percentages of activity by show type. So, how often in a given week or month does the average TV viewer tweet something about a TV show that is being watched, Nielsen? Is this an every hour occurrance? Or maybe it happens, on average, once a week? or, perhaps, once every two weeks? Inquiring minds want to know---and you have the data so why not enligten us?
Reply

Jack Wakshlag from Media Strategy, Research & Analytics, November 24, 2015 at 11:08 a.m.

Ed I think the data normally shows number of tweeters, number of tweets, and number reached by those tweets. I don't think it's hidden. Just a little arithmetic.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, November 24, 2015 at 12:26 p.m.

Jack, I'm sure you are correct but I don't see such numbers in the Nielsen release dated 11/23. What I'm referring to is the national projection for tweets, not the sample base for this analysis. In other words, what percent of the Nielsen panel tweets about TV shows per week or month, and how often does this happen? I have seen older nielsen data that indicated that such behaviour was not as frequent as is often assumed. While this may have changed, it's the overall amount of tonnage I'm interested in, relative to telecasts seen.

John Grono from GAP Research, November 24, 2015 at 4:14 p.m.

Ed, my understanding is that it is an absolute count off the Twitter feed that is then 'edited down' to just those tweets relating to TV.

Also, we need to remember that there are many more readers of tweets than there are posters of tweets. There is a value to this - I'm just not sure it's been worked out yet.

Ed Papazian from Media Dynamics Inc, November 24, 2015 at 4:38 p.m.

John, the point I was making by asking about the overall extent of tweeting---which Nielsen can easily define---is the assumption by some that it is a very frequent activity. When this aspect isn't covered and we are merely shown breakdowns of said activity by show type and other variables, without referrence to the actual extent of such behaviour, it feeds the probably false assumption that "everybody is tweeting" about TV shows. I would just like to see a more complete picture provided by such reports so readers can weigh their importance more objectively.