Nielsen expands social TV ratings to include Facebook

Nielsen is expanding Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings to include Facebook conversations for the first time, with plans to add Instagram at a later date.

Nielsen will rename the offering Nielsen Social Content Ratings as a result of expansion. The ratings service measures conversations about video programming from TV and over-the-top services and tracks engagement, reach and demographics.

“The development of Social Content Ratings reflects Nielsen’s commitment to continually adapt our services to meet the needs of the industry and is part of Nielsen’s ongoing effort to evolve our measurement to reflect the total audience across screens and platforms,” said Sean Casey, president, Nielsen Social.

“Nielsen Social measurement is evolving to provide a comprehensive, standardised picture of how consumers are responding to program content through social media, wherever and whenever.”

The expanded ratings are due to launch commercially in the first half of 2016 and will be available in Italy, Mexico, the US and Australia – all the markets where Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings are currently available.