M+E Daily

By Paul Sweeting

TV ratings service Nielsen has been aggressive lately in moving to stake a claim to the increasingly critical business of social TV metrics. Last month, Nielsen acquired Brooklyn, NY-based SocialGuide, a startup that “captures and organizes social buzz from Twitter in real time for every program aired across 232 of the most popular U.S. television channels including Spanish language channels,” according to the company’s web site. Yesterday, Nielsen followed that up with a deal with Twitter to create the “Nielsen Twitter TV Rating.”

Under the deal, Nielsen and Twitter “will deliver a syndicated-standard metric around the reach of the TV conversation on Twitter, slated for commercial availability at the start of the fall 2013 TV season,” according to a press release on the agreement.

The deal between Twitter and Nielsen is a blow to Bluefin Labs, Trendrr and other startups that have been trying build their own social TV ratings businesses on the back of Twitter chatter. Currently, Bluefin and Trendrr acquire Twitter data through third-party data providers. According to yesterday’s announcement, Twitter’s deal with Nielsen is “exclusive,” although it’s unclear exactly what that applies to. While it likely means any hopes Bluefin or Trendrr had of obtaining Twitter data directly are now dashed, they may still be able to get what they need through third-party providers.

On the other hand, Twitter has shown itself more than willing to crack down on users of its data if those uses conflict with the company’s own commercial efforts.

“The Nielsen Twitter TV Rating is a significant step forward for the industry, particularly as programmers develop increasingly captivating live TV and new second-screen experiences, and advertisers create integrated ad campaigns that combine paid and earned media,” Steve Hasker, President, Global Media Products and Advertiser Solutions at Nielsen said in a statement. “As a media measurement leader we recognize that Twitter is the preeminent source of real-time television engagement data.”

Together, the Twitter deal and the SocialGuide acquisition area measure of how critical social media platforms have become to the TV business, both for programmers and advertisers. The close timing of the two deals also suggests Nielsen is increasingly concerned that its long-standing franchise in the TV ratings game is threatened by the rise of social TV viewing and advertisers’ increasingly focus on less tangible factors such as viewer “engagement” with the content they’re sponsoring rather than simply how many people are watching.

“Twitter has become the world’s digital water cooler, where conversations about TV happen in real time,” Twitter VO of media Chloe Sladden said.  “This effort reflects Nielsen’s foresight into the evolving nature of the TV viewing experience, and we’re looking forward to collaborating with Twitter ecosystem partners on this metric to help broadcasters and advertisers create truly social TV experiences.”

The focus of the social TV metrics battle is now likely to shift to Facebook, which controls the other major “firehose” of social media data marketers covet.