Nielsen to add DVR habits

Since television networks make their money on advertising, it's always been crucial that there be a good way of measuring what people watch.

For what seems like almost as long as anyone can remember, the measurement everyone uses has been that of Nielsen Media Research.

But in the last few years, with the advent of digital video recorders, the Nielsen ratings haven't counted a small but growing portion of the audience pie: those who time-shift most of their T.V. watching via TiVo or any other DVR provider.

Now, however, Nielsen said it is ready to adapt to modern times. According to the Associated Press, the TV ratings measurement king plans on Boxing day (Dec. 26) to begin including audiences' DVR habits in its valuable reports.

The technology will work, said the AP, by adding the ability to monitor programs that people record on their DVRs and note when they watch that episode of, for example, "Survivor," "Nova" or "Rome."

Even better, from the networks' perspective, Nielsen will be able to tell when someone is fast forwarding through commercials. It's all possible, reported AP, because Nielsen's "active/passive meters" are able to follow digital codes implanted in programs by the networks.

"The most significant impact that it will have is that it will show the top-rated television shows will have a higher audience with a significant amount of playback," David Potrack, the top researcher for CBS and UPN, told the AP.

At the same time, measurements of people's DVR-watching proclivities will also likely expose a tangible example of the so-called "long tail," the phenomenon in which services like Amazon, Netflix, eBay and the like bring much more traffic to lesser-known content than would have been possible in the pre-digital era.

Thus, programs that don't do that well in the Nielsen ratings but that develop cult followings, will likely do better in the new world of the ratings, as tests have shown that those kinds of shows have disproportionately larger audiences among DVR users, said the AP.