Nielsen Acquires Telephia

The Nielsen Company has bought Telephia, giving it a major boost in the cell phone data tracking market.

The Nielsen Company, known for their data on TV usage, is expanding its horizons. Nielsen has acquired Telephia, a company that tracks data on cell phone use.   Nielsen had been building its own tracking tools on cell phone use, but analysts say the purchase will greatly expand their scope. Telephia tracks all aspects of cell phone use, from calling to Web surfing and viewing of videos. Those give insight into market shares within the telecoms industry, and performance quality and customer satisfaction with wireless phones. Unlike Nielsen, which has a pool of people from whom they draw their research, Telephia surveys different people for each study.   Telephia holds several patents of consumption tracking techniques that will aid Nielsen in tracking media consumption. What Nielsen – and many others – are banking on is that people will begin using their cell phones for more and more, for news, television as well as music.   “We follow content wherever it goes across all platforms, and this is a really significant step forward in measuring content across mobile platforms,” said Susan D. Whiting, executive vice president of Nielsen.   As part of the deal, Nielsen will acquire telecoms giants like Verizon and AT&T as customers.