Nielsen’s drive to measure TV viewing across all screens accelerated Feb. 11 when it announced plans to measure TV viewing online and on cell phones.
Nielsen will attempt to measure online TV viewing the same way it does traditional TV, with viewer panels. “We will begin by asking a small but representative sample of existing panelists and newly recruited households if they will permit us to track their viewing of television programs over the Internet,” Nielsen said.
“We will initially measure total audience by program or distributor and are considering potential approaches to providing the source of the program by website,” it said.
The tests will begin in Q4 2008.
The company is also working with developers of the Mobile-Pedestrian-Handheld (MPH) system to develop a measurement system for digital television on mobile systems, including cell phones. The MPH is a system consumers will use to view television programs on their mobile devices. Nielsen developed a software meter for mobile devices that can track usage of the consumption of mobile content. It will begin testing the meter this spring.
These efforts are part of Nielsen’s Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement (A2/M2) initiative, launched 18 months ago, that will measure TV content across all screens.
Apple and Google Face UK Investigation Into Mobile Browser Dominance
Apple and Google aren't giving consumers a genuine choice of mobile web browsers, a British watchdog said Friday in a report that recommends they face an investigation under new U.K. digital rules taking effect next year.
The Competition and Markets Authority took aim at Apple, saying the iPhone maker's tactics hold back innovation by stopping rivals from giving users new features like faster webpage loading. Apple does this by restricting progressive web apps, which don't need to be downloaded from an app store and aren't subject to app store commissions, the report said.
"This technology is not able to fully take off on iOS devices," the watchdog said in a provisional report on its investigation into mobile browsers that it opened after an initial study concluded that Apple and Google effectively have a chokehold on "mobile ecosystems."
The CMA's report also found that Apple and Google manipulate the choices given to mobile phone users to make their own browsers "the clearest or easiest option."
And it said that the a revenue-sharing deal between the two U.S. Big Tech companies "significantly reduces their financial incentives" to compete in mobile browsers on Apple's iOS operating system for iPhones.
Both companies said they will "engage constructively" with the CMA.
Apple said it disagreed with the findings and said it was concerned that the recommendations would undermine user privacy and security.
Google said the openness of its Android mobile operating system "has helped to expand choice, reduce prices and democratize access to smartphones and apps" and that it's "committed to open platforms that empower consumers."
It's the latest move by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic to crack down on the... Read More