Ask HN: How to collect TV + online TV viewing behavior?

[jamesshamenski]

I'm trying to create a complete Nielsen ratings to encompass every place that shows are watched.

Now, Amazon video on demand, itunes, hulu, clicker and others are not in the business of giving up their data. How can i convince then to share viewing data with a small startup? Can this approach work in dealing with the big boys (Nielsen and Tivo)?

[smiler]

I doubt Amazon, Apple, NetFlix etc are going to give you their data.. they might if you paid them for it?

Also the content providers themselves may have contracts with Amazon, Apple etc which prevents them from sharing that data with any 3rd parties and is exclusively available to them.

I don't know how analogue / digital TV ratings work in the US, but in the UK it is compiled by a company (BARB) by having a representative sample of people having their TV viewing measured by extra equipment installed in their homes and then extrapolated to give the 'real' viewing figure.

I am thinking maybe a similar idea could work for net based viewing with a desktop / browser plugin.

- Collect their demographic - Provide an incentive for people to sign up (weekly prize draw, monthly prize draw) - Perhaps even sell it as a social aspect (allow us to collect data on what you watch will help give you good programming in the future).

On the other hand, look at the current shift for net-based viewing - a lot of it is moving onto TV based set top boxes (Google TV, new Apple TV and integrated into TVs themselves). These are all walled gardens and I can't see you having any chance of getting that data. Apple do not even publically give you a regional breakdown on their device sales (for Europe at least), so the chances of them sharing this data are nil.

[jamesshamenski]

Having a plug-in is a descent idea. That's essentially the same concept as what Nielsen does with their black boxes. Thanks for the input!

[mikedanko]

Good luck. This data is worth more than the actual revenue and income for most of these companies. It's how they negotiate for carriage in different avenues and grow at all. I've often seen it as the cause of make or break deals between various parties when negotiating said distribution. On the same point, most of this data has to be provided back to the content originator per contract anyway for billing purposes. Even if its free to users, someone's paying the royalty bills.

Who's your target market here? Google l4m3 and hit me up, I can answer most of your questions on this if you can give me some more data.

[marcusfrex]

Actually i am working with biggest media research companies in middle east (including Nielsen in Turkey). Depending on my experience, you have to make them a part of the share to convince them. Because they already wants to sell those data to corporates and you should offer them more than the others.

[jamesshamenski]

It's great to hear what's happening in the middle east!

I'm very open to sharing the results with my partners. However, slicing the data partitioned by their competitor will surely not work across the board.