Nielsen Tracking Over-the-Top Viewing

LAS VEGAS -- Nielsen has been working with its clients to effectively measure and provide ratings for content delivered via over-the-top technologies, said Brian Fuhrer, Senior VP Product Leadership at Nielsen, during an interview with Beet.TV at CES.

Nielsen does that through its National People Meter, the panel that also tracks all TV ratings. Nielsen tracks consumption through an embedded audio code inside programming. That lets Nielsen track program viewing by People Meter panelists whether the programming is watched on computers, on TV sets, on gaming consoles or via other devices, he explained. Nielsen has also rolled out efforts to measure cross-platform viewing.

In 2012, Fuhrer said he's expecting programming growth on gaming consoles and new over-the-top devices in particular. TV is still king though; one in three U.S. homes owns more than four TV sets, Nielsen found in a recent report.