Nielsen Announces Minute By Minute Ratings

In a welcome, long overdue and revolutionary move, Nielsen has announced it will provide, beginning October 2005, minute by minute respondent level viewing data flagged with minutes including a commercial.

Conceivably, this will now allow for rating viewership of television commercials instead of their containing program. Media buyers will now be able to base program selection on a given program's ability to deliver high ratings for the commercials it contains.

One issue we haven't seen raised, though perhaps minor, is how a minute rating will be attributed to the potentially two :30's that appear within that measured minute. Is it fair to assume two :30's receive the same rating? It's a step in the right direction but a far cry from the desired method of "tagging" every commercial with a unique ID as web ads are to arrive at a "real" delivery number and not one based on a projectable base.