Updated: There have been a few stories lately comparing the popularity of SNL clips on TV and the web. “The number of people who have watched the clips on the web is closing fast, and will soon surpass the 15 million that watched on TV, if it hasn’t already,” explains an Ad Age story, adding up numbers from NBC.com, Hulu and YouTube. Inevitably these comparisons draw “ahems” from TV research types who note that some people have watched the clip online more than once, a point that Ad Age’s Michael Learmonth explains in his story. “Online video streams and Nielsen ratings aren’t comparable — the Nielsen viewers are unique; streams aren’t,” he writes. “But the point is that the online clip will ultimately expose ‘SNL’ to a lot more viewers than TV alone.” True, and some TV folks may be too hung up on the apples-to-oranges comparison to realize that viral TV clips will soon drive larger audiences on the web no matter how you interpret the numbers.
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