Engadget - While we're watching our favorite shows in HD, it's easy to forget that they live and die by ratings, and those ratings aren't always collected with the latest technology. In an effort to improve the sample size and accuracy of ratings for local TV channels, Nielsen is starting to roll out a hybrid technology consisting of watermarks and return data from supporting pay-TV provider's set-top boxes, like DirecTV and Charter.
2015 was a good year for streaming services, according to Nielsen's year-end Music report out now. In 2015, on-demand streaming services grew to 317 billion streams – that’s a doubling from 2014, which saw 164.5 billion songs streamed, Nielsen report states.
Facebook this year continued to hold the number one position as the top app installed on U.S. smartphones based on the average number of unique users, according to a new report out this week from Nielsen, but its mobile messaging application clocked in as the fastest-growing app of 2015.
A growing number of consumers are moving away from cable and satellite TV subscriptions in favor of streaming services like Netflix and Hulu Plus. It makes sense in a lot of ways -- why pay a premium for a bloated TV package just so you can access the handful of channels you really want to watch? That's a topic/rant for another day, but in the meantime, Nielsen will start taking into account the viewing habits of streaming subscribers by measuring viewership data for online video services.
They have to measure:
-Torrent Traffic
-Streaming Traffic
-Netflix Traffic
-Hulu Traffic
-Amazon Prime Traffic
-any other digital medium
-any other Internet streaming/downloadable medium
And even then they still won't know exactly how many people are actually watching a TV series.
Amazon Prime and Netflix constitute 95% of my boob-tube viewing. I refuse to pay for the "privilege" of watching commercial advertisements, however, so no Hulu.
While i'm inclined to agree with you, many of the shows i Enjoy are available only on Hulu or Shit-tastic cable/satellite providers. $8/month or $68+/month? besides, there arent commercials on every show, and i'll take 30-60 seconds of commercial over 5-8 minutes if i MUST watch them...
