Internet content providers Amazon and Netflix will soon enter the Nielsens race, according to an article published in The Wall Street Journal. This means that hot, critically acclaimed content such as Amazon’s Transparent and Netflix’s House of Cards and Orange is the New Black, among others, will finally measure up against their higher profile network cousins.
The data, however, will not be provided with the cooperation of online streaming services. Instead, according to the Journal, Nielsen is planning to measure streaming content by analyzing the audio from digital streams. The method does not incorporate the assumedly large mobile and tablet streaming audience.
This news is huge and could prove incredibly significant to the overall awards attention of these series. If for some reason the series prove significantly less popular among viewers than previously imagined, then their overall reputation could suffer as a result.
Basically, if they’re not positioned as ratings winners, then they instantly become ratings losers, and nobody likes a loser – particularly awards voters.
Historically, Amazon and Netflix only vaguely referred to ratings for their influential and popular online content. According to the article, Netflix and other online streaming providers are available is as much as 40% of American households.
Originally founded in 1923, the Nielsen Corporation tracks a broad array of consumer viewing and purchasing data in over 100 countries. It’s Nielsen Top Ten has been widely circulated since the early 1950s.
