Nielsen: Twitter and TV Programs Are Becoming Fast Friends

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By Sean Fitz-Gerald2013-08-06 18:39:44 UTC

Nielsen released findings on Tuesday that shine the spotlight on the two-way relationship that has been burgeoning between TV viewership and Twitter as of late.

The information and global measurement company's independent Twitter Causation Study tapped time series analysis to see if Twitter conversations drove increased tune-in rates for broadcast TV, and to note if broadcast tune-in led to increased tweeting. The study revealed that live TV ratings had a statistically significant impact in related tweets among 48% of the episodes sampled and that the volume of tweets caused statistically significant changes in live TV ratings for 29% of episodes.

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"Using time series analysis, we saw a statistically significant causal influence indicating that a spike in TV ratings can increase the volume of tweets, and, conversely, a spike in tweets can increase tune-in,” said Paul Donato, Nielsen's chief research officer, in a statement.

The report analyzed minute-to-minute trends in Nielsen's live TV ratings and tweets for 221 broadcast primetime program episodes using Nielsen's SocialGuide. The analysis methodology was developed by Nobel Prize-winning economist Clive Granger.

The results, according to Twitter's Chief Operating Officer Ali Rowghani, validate what many of the social networking and microblogging site's TV partners have been saying for years: "Namely, that Twitter drives tune-in, especially for live, linear television programming."

The results show that increases in TV ratings during an episode can cause more people to tweet more frequently.

The study also looked at the impact of tweets on TV ratings by genre, finding that tweets had the greatest impact on programs in the competitive reality genre and influenced ratings changes in 44% of episodes. Episodes in the comedy and sports genres also saw significant increased tune-in from tweets (see above).

"As the world's pre-eminent real-time social communication medium, Twitter is a complementary tool for broadcasters to engage their audience, drive conversation about their programming, and increase tune-in," Rowghani said.

Donato added that many media companies and advertisers have already made investments in social media outreach as a way to engage more directly with their consumers. He also said that there are still more worthwhile opportunities for Nielsen to conduct additional research to further quantify the relationship between television and social media activity.

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Images: Nielsen; Flickr, garrettheath

Topics: Clive Granger, Entertainment, Nielsen Media Research, ratings, Television, Tweeting, Twitter, viewership