Time-Shifted Viewing
// January 25th, 2012
Late January 2012 sees a major change in the way that Nielsen reports on television viewing, with the addition of time-shifted viewing data to the mix. As Personal Video Recorders (PVRs) grow in popularity – more than a quarter of New Zealand homes (and 40% of Sky homes) have a PVR – it’s become more and more important to track viewing through those devices, to get a better picture of how Kiwis watch television.
To cope with the changed environment, the Nielsen Company has increased the number of peoplemeters in New Zealand homes from 500 to 600, and introduced a new generation of peoplemeters with the capability of tracking viewing and playback across today’s wide range of devices. 
Nielsen will now be reporting television viewing in two different ways:
- Overnights
Viewing of television broadcast content that occurs on the same day as it is broadcast. Includes viewing that is live and that which is time-shifted within the same broadcast day (2am-2am). - Consolidated
Viewing of recorded television broadcast content which occurs between 1 and 7 days after original broadcast
As a result of these changed measurement techniques we can expect to see a small increase in total consolidated viewing (on the order of 2-5%). Preliminary studies conducted by Nielsen suggest that:
- Peaktime viewing is 17% higher in homes with PVRs
- 82% of viewing in PVR homes is live, 7% is watched within the same day
- 11% is time-shifted and watched later
- 84% of viewing (and 99.4% of ratings) occur within three days of the broadcast
The new trading currency for all broadcasters will be the Consolidated rating, which represents the cumulative viewing total across seven days. For time sensitive Advertisers (for example, for One Day Sales) alternative currencies may be considered on a campaign by campaign basis.
Only viewing taking place at standard speed playback will be included in viewing data; pausing, fast-forwarding and rewinding is specifically excluded.