DVRs, DVDs, iTunes Video - no one watches TV in real time anymore. So Nielsen Media Research, the venerable monitor of America's viewing habits, is rebooting. It now reports on TiVo'd programs and may track shows on iPods and cell phones. But Nielsen's empire was built to serve Madison Avenue when people still watched commercials. We asked CEO Susan Whiting how it'll survive the advent of time shifting. - Lucas Graves
WIRED: What's the point of rating shows if people skip the ads?
WHITING: It is true that some people are skipping commercials, but not all are. Our job is to look at the total audience for the program. Then the buyers and sellers of advertising negotiate what they do with that information.
Still, some of your big clients say they won't use your new TiVo ratings until you show ad-skipping.
We're building the tools so they can actually look at the audience and see who skipped the commercials. That will come out in the second quarter of 2006.
You're also looking at iPods and cell phones, which probably won't be huge ad vehicles anyway.
One of the very first cable networks that Nielsen measured over 25 years ago was HBO, which has no advertising. But they looked at it as a good way of understanding their audiences.
Why won't your clients go straight to TiVo or the cable companies for data?
First, we're independent. Second, advertisers and agencies don't want to be in the business of putting all the data together. And third, technology might tell you what's on the screen, but it won't tell you who's watching. There are still homes with two TV sets and no technology, and homes with eight TVs and every kind of video technology you can imagine, and our job is to pull them together. That's something other people don't do today.
Susan Whiting, Nielsen Media Research
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