The habit of viewing favorite television programs on the internet is one that has become increasingly popular in recent years. Many networks have taken up the practice of posting new episodes to their websites shortly after they premiere and compilation sites, such as Hulu, have arisen making these episodes even more easily accessible. “The New York Times” recently reported on a new “Internet Meter,” developed by Nielson, which has the potential to revolutionize internet television by recording the number of households watching TV on the internet and, more specifically, what programs they are watching and at what time. Although there are some drawbacks mentioned, the most serious of which being the reliability of the numbers, Nielson believes that their third party objectivity will work to their advantage and set their numbers apart from the rest. The software is currently being tested in “People Meter” households, which are defined in the article as “the chosen few whose TV-viewing habits function as the representative sample for measuring a show’s success.”
The addition of internet television to our daily lives has been a great success thus far, and I expect that the television industry will continue to flourish by making more and more videos accessible because it allows people to follow specific programs without disrupting their daily lives. Before internet viewing, if I was busy during the airing of a favorite program, I simply wouldn’t watch. If this happened enough times, I would end up not watching the program altogether because I was so far behind in the plot. I imagine that there were many other people who dealt with the situation in the same way and, now that there is the option to tune in online at any time, this is a much less frequent occurrence. The addition of internet television not only benefits the viewers by way of convenience, but it also benefits the networks because they increase their viewer count and number of regular followers by allowing for more viewing opportunities.
I think that this new meter will be a great success and will undoubtedly lead to immense changes in the marketing practices of both the television networks and their advertisers. The Internet Meter will more clearly define the niche audiences that tune into different programs. For example, they might find that the majority of the people following the new hit action series do not watch its original airing on Monday, but they watch on the internet on either Tuesday or Wednesday. The network might reconsider the Monday airing of the show to accommodate the larger audience in the hopes that they choose to tune into a new time on Tuesday nights. Also, it may be found that a large portion of the people watching this action series also catch the online viewing of the network’s crime series. Given such information, the network would be able to pair shows that with similar audiences in the hopes of gaining viewers that watch one show but might not know about the other. They are more likely to watch if one airs right after the other and they do not have to remember to tune back in another night. The advertisements on these online viewing websites will also become more specific to the niche audience once more information is known about the most watched shows with the hope of sparking interest in the product or service of a company.
We already know that internet television has revolutionized the way we watch TV, now, in the coming years, we will witness Nielson’s “Internet Meter” as it revolutionizes the industry’s marketing practices. Changes are on the way.
Perez, Sarah. "New 'Internet Meter' Will Officially Measure Web TV Audience." The New York Times. 9 Sept. 2009. Web. 10 Sept. 2009.
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