Nielsen partners with Twitter to track ratings

Nielsen and Twitter today announced a new metric intended to establish a syndicated-standard way of tracking TV-related Twitter activity, making it into the kind of numbers the industry is familiar with.

Even though the traditional concept of television seasons seems to be losing relevancy for viewers, remains very important for advertising, international sales and other aspects of the business.

The new Nielsen Twitter TV Rating is scheduled to be commercially available in time for the fall 2013 television season. It will track both those participating as well as those who were exposed to the social conversation, with the goal of measuring both this audience’s size and its effect and reporting it in a standardized way.

The exclusive multi-year agreement is a complement to Nielsen’s existing TV ratings and Nielsen/McKinsey & Co.’s NM Incite’s SocialGuide audience engagement analytics platform.