Disney, NBC Wrestle With Web Video Ratings

LOS ANGELES (TheStreet) -- To the overnight ratings and much of the general public, "cable" still refers to a service providing television channels, not the cord linking a TV to untrackable Internet content. With each season, however, that definition gets a rewrite.

Fall television programming is hitting the airwaves after a summer in which market-research firm comScore(SCOR Quote) found that 158 million U.S. Internet users streamed online video in July alone. Though the 121 million "Google(GOOG Quote) sites" (read: YouTube) viewers skew toward casual programming, the 38 million who visited NBC, ABC and Fox's joint venture, Hulu, are tormenting both networks and advertisers by watching standard TV fare while contributing little to its scant advertisers and nothing to the ratings.

This is where the Nielsen Co. comes in, albeit at a relatively glacial pace. The ratings giant just wrapped its mind around on-demand viewing in 2006 -- embedding code and audio watermarks into on-demand content and rolling views of that content into commercial ratings -- and is tiptoeing forward with a 363-home test of its "Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement" Internet software meter starting this year.

"The PC by its very name is a personal device," says Scott Brown, senior vice president of digital platforms and media strategy for Nielsen. "One of the big questions has been 'Can we install software on people's machines?' We've been pleased to learn thus far that people are enthusiastic about it."

The biggest problem with Nielsen's latest undertaking is its timetable. Installation in 375 ratings homes isn't expected to be completed until next year, with the program's kickoff slated for 2011. With roughly $70 billion in advertising currently hinging on Nielsen ratings, and untold fortunes waiting to be mined online, Nielsen's constituents want to fast-forward the process a bit.