Ratings giant Nielsen seeks to bridge the gap between television and internet ratings

The battle to understand and measure where the attention of America’s consumers is going continues. A recent report by the New York Times looked at the struggles TV ratings bastion Nielsen is facing as it seeks to remain relevant in a world where the Internet has stolen the eyes and minds of American culture.

Although already in possession of a strong reputation for ratings, which has allowed for diversification into the interactive realm, Nielsen wants more. The true holy grail for ratings companies, and the corporations whose data purchase drive their growth, is a combination of television and Internet monitoring. That combination would allow businesses to at last understand the interplay between the two media sources and how information flows between the Internet and television to direct behavior.

The problem is that people just plain don’t want any one corporation knowing that much about their purchasing habits, personal preferences, and overall media consumption. Allowing Nielsen to monitor television viewing is fine, but opening the door to Internet usage as well seems simply too far. The very value of that information – its depth – presents a serious ethical and privacy concern.

As a consumer, I sympathize with those who would prefer that corporations stay away completely, or limit monitoring to one media. On the other hand, I am no stranger to the intense interaction between television and the web. I watch most of my television with an open laptop on one knee, AIM signed on, and two or three tabs open at different websites. I often read the news or look up points of interest online during commercial breaks for my shows. Indeed, the internet is the fastest portal available for getting additional information about products I like in a commercial or a company in which I am interested.

Perhaps most telling on this subject was a discussion on advertising I had with a friend of mine, who is not a marketing major but equally exposed, none the less, to commercials and advertising in the mass media. We were discussing some of the billboards we had past with far more copy on them than anyone driving the speed limit could hope to absorb. “The most effective way to get people to follow up,” she said, “whether its a commercial or a billboard is to give the company name and follow it with ‘Google Us.’ Anyone who was seriously interested would probably do that first anyway.”

Since the Internet is the key portal for getting more information on a topic of interest, a study in the interaction between television and Internet usage could prove extremely valuable, and extremely profitable. As a marketer, I can appreciate the incredible value of this information; but as companies seek greater and greater intensity in the kinds of information they collect on consumers, the question becomes – how far will be too far?

Here’s hoping consumers can continue to draw that line.

Special thanks to “Nielsen Looks Beyond TV, and Hits Roadblocks” from NYTimes.com.