Ratings Firm Nielsen to Measure DVR Usage

Nielsen Media Research says it will begin measuring usage of digital video recorders next week, offering three separate ratings per program and network.

Nielsen Media Research has announced it will begin offering national TV audience estimates next week which include data from shows viewed using digital video recorders (DVRs).

Beginning December 26, programs and networks will receive three separate ratings:

• Live Ratings: Programs viewed at time of broadcast, excluding any DVR playback.
• Live+Same Day Ratings: Including viewers who watched programming live and those who played back the program using a DVR on the same day of the initial airing.
• Live+7 Day Ratings: Viewers watching live, as well as those who played back the program up to a week after initial airing.

The first weekly program rankings with DVR viewing included will be released January 6, 2006.

Nielsen’s move both responds to broadcaster and studio concerns about how DVR use and timeshifting technology is either eroding or adding to viewership from different sorts of programming. Nielsen’s findings will eventually be fodder between networks and advertisers as the data are applied to negotiations for advertising rates and placement. However, neither Nielsen nor the advertising community think the data will be anything more than a curiosity at first, given that current estimates place DVRs in only about 6 to 8 percent of U.S. television households. Advertisers also aren’t sold on the idea that timeshifted playback of programming is as valuable to them as viewership of live broadcasts, since it’s not clear what proportions of DVR viewers use the technology to avoid commercials.