Monitoring a Changing Industry

NPR in the US reports that advertisers are now pushing Nielsen to start monitoring online viewing of television shows, as offered by web sites like Hulu.

Kate Sirkin, who directs global research at the media planning and buying firm Starcom MediaVest Group, says advertisers are starting to demand more comprehensive tracking of viewers across platforms.

"I'm not sure if that metric is the only metric we need going forward," she says of traditional Nielsen television ratings. "We would love cross-media measurements."

Sirkin says she would like measurements that aggregate regular TV and online ratings. She suggests Nielsen may be falling behind right at the moment when the ways people watch television are multiplying.

Her firm is part of a consortium of powerful ad agencies and TV networks pressuring Nielsen to evolve along with the habits of television consumers, who don't just watch shows on their television sets, but also on their laptops and other mobile devices.