Nielsen: 29 Percent of TV Ratings Impacted by Twitter

Study tries to establish causal relationship between social and GRPs

In a first attempt at establishing a causal relationship between Twitter activity and TV ratings, Nielsen on Tuesday released a study that suggests that the social media platform can in fact have a meaningful impact on GRPs.

According to Nielsen’s “Twitter Causation Study,” the volume of tweets related to a particular broadcast “caused significant changes in live TV ratings” 29 percent of the time.

While Nielsen did not further quantify the impact of increased tweet volume on a given show’s ratings—as was born out with Syfy’s much-ballyhooed Sharknado, there isn’t necessarily a correlation between rabid Twitter activity and actual deliveries—the research giant did break down its preliminary results by genre.

Unsurprisingly, unscripted competition shows were the primary beneficiaries of real-time tweets, as hashtagged conversations influenced ratings changes 44 percent of the time.

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