Friday, November 16, 2012

Viacom Wants A Change Of How Television Ratings Are Measured

From RTE.ie:
Viacom, the international media group which owns MTV, Comedy Central and Nickelodeon, is complaining about the unsuitability of current TV ratings measures for gauging how many people are actually watching its content. MTV figures are down nearly a third this year, Comedy Central audience figures have dropped by 22% and Nickelodeon is down 13%. Viacom said those numbers, which clearly impact on its ability to sell TV advertising, do not capture the millions of viewers accessing its content on tablets, smartphones and games consoles. Analysis firm Ooyala has just released research which backs up Viacom's argument. Its analysis of 200 million online viewers in 130 countries shows a 90% jump in video watching online since the beginning of the year. 71% of those videos are now longer than 10 minutes, which indicates that viewers are prepared to watch programmes rather than just short clips.