Twitter Nielsen TV Ratings launch with Ten and Nine only networks to sign on
The Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings (NTTR) were officially launched last night with the Nine Network joining Network Ten in signing up for the service, as the social network confirms it is in discussions with video streaming services about the new metric.
However, Network Seven, the ABC, SBS and Foxtel are yet to sign up to the new platform, which hopes to help TV companies monetise the audience engagement with advertisers, and give media buyers a new metric to help decide which shows to back.
The local launch comes after the NTTR has already been rolled out in a number of countries including the USA, UK, Japan and Brazil, typically with the locally approved online ratings provider.
Speaking to Mumbrella after the event, Twitter global head of TV creative Fred Graver said: “Twitter was not designed to be like a second screen app, but it works as one. About four years ago we really began to see a lot of people talking about their favourite TV shows on Twitter and the networks began to notice there was a lot of talk about shows on Twitter.
Graver
“Our overall goal as a company is to reach everyone on the planet and give them a platform to talk about the things they care about, to talk about the great moments of their lives as they’re happening. It just so happens for a lot of people some of the big moments of their lives are on TV.
“It’s grown very quickly to be something important and it’s grown as the TV industry has faced some huge challenges. We now have an audience that can watch anywhere on any device at any time they want.
“We often say that Twitter is the channel that’s always on so the conversation on Twitter helps our users discover content that they want to watch, it helps our TV partners reach and find the right audience.”
Twitter head of TV in Australia Tony Broderick added: “We really wanted to challenge the industry into taking it to the next level, where voting and big editorial story points are being driven by that [social] engagement and really helping our partners monetise those to cover the costs of those and also to profit from those.”
A sample ratings report put Seven’s broadcast of the men’s Grand Final of the Australian Open as the winner on Sunday evening in terms of Twitter chatter, with 18,000 unique authors responsible for 47,100 Tweets while I’m a Celebrity Get Me Out of Here was in second place with 7,200 unique authors penning a total of 16,800 Tweets.
Asked about the absence of the biggest free-to-air network Seven, head of NTTR with Nielsen Scott Gillham said he feels “it’s just a matter of time” before it comes on board.
“If you actually look at the numbers we looked at tonight Seven was number one. A lot of their programming is well represented, it’s just a matter of time,” he said.
When approached a Seven spokesperson told Mumbrella: “Our objective is securing the biggest audiences across our media platforms and delivering those audiences to our clients. The biggest engagement with audiences is through broadcast television. The most relevant metric for advertisers on our network is the delivery of mass audiences.”
However, Broderick was certain commercial and public broadcasters already see the value of Twitter.
“You have someone like Tim Worner from Seven who says by integrating Twitter he’s suddenly turned My Kitchen Rules into what feels like a big live sporting event,” he said.
“We’re definitely seeing a lot of buy in, people definitely get the value. It’s all been done on instinct until now, what’s fantastic with the NTTR they can start to quantify that, and once they can quantify that they can talk to advertisers now.
“We’re making progress on the networks adopting those and I know there’s still keen interest from others who are yet to make the full commitment,” he added.
With the local video streaming space heating up following the launch of Nine and Fairfax’s joint venture Stan, and Seven and Foxtel’s Presto and with US behemoth Netflix appearing next month, Broderick said he is having “initial discussions with the platforms”.
Broderick
Pushed on the value of NTTR to subscription based businesses he added: “It’s a slightly different approach. We’ve done some fantastic work with the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime. What Twitter is great at is creating a sense of an event. So we’ve had things like casts live tweeting, screenings of content in the US and in our other markets. It’s definitely something we’re keen to explore here too.”
Graver added: “We’ve also done experiments with Netflix where they try to keep the conversation going around shows to attract more viewers.
“For Netflix and Amazon Prime, you want to leverage the live conversation. So if a lot of people have been talking about Orange is the New Black the weekend it comes out, you want to develop a cadence of events that captures that audience and keeps them talking.
“For example, what they do for Orange is the new Black releases is every Thursday for eight weeks the cast do what they call ‘visiting hours’ – they promote tweets to people who’ve been tweeting about the show, you get to talk to the cast, the creators, they release unique video and behind the scene photos. They ask people to submit fan art and then they choose their favourite and redistribute it. They create a big event.
“Netflix famously doesn’t release numbers but they keep telling us they’re attracting a significant percentage of new audience based on everyone just seeing the constant conversation week after week.”
Gillham
On what the service offers media buyers Nielsen’s Gillham said: “It’s designed to provide another layer or perspective if you like, where they can start to look at programs by their social engagement. It gives them another overlay.
“When they’re comparing TV programs that look similar from an OzTam perspective it’s something they can factor in to the decision making process. If they identify two programs that look the same but one has a higher social engagement they might start to look at it differently.”
However, Twitter does not provide country figures for users making it difficult to determine the size of the audience pool the service is tapping.
Broderick explained: “The main reason for that is we’re effectively a global platform. It’s very hard to put it in silos. APAC is our fastest growing region. The conversation especially around TV is incredibly healthy.
“I hear so many different numbers, very rarely are they in the vicinity,” he said when pushed to confirm a 4m user figure.
Miranda Ward
Linkedin
As a senior agency buyer who was at first prepared to give Twitter the benefit of the doubt, I am now thoroughly convinced (after several campaigns) that Twitter’s media value is small relative to other social media options, let alone the broader media landscape. Its capacity to ‘move the needle’ in either brand or performance terms is virtually non-existent, regardless of the length of the campaign. In terms of active monthly accounts, I estimate that there are less than 250,000 ‘tweeters’. I’m very happy for Twitter to refute that estimate with their own fact-ladened response.
User ID not verified.