Nielsen to measure streaming viewership; the impact on ‘House of Cards,’ ‘Longmire,’ more

While the story may be getting a little bit lost in comparison to all of the other headlines that are out there today, this is one that is of equal importance in many ways. Today, Nielsen announced, per the Wall Street Journal, that they are going to start measuring streaming content, such as what you watch on Netflix, Amazon, or similar services.

There are some details about this plan that are a little bit unclear at present, including how the data would necessarily be compiled. Netflix has in particular been extremely quiet about how their data is measured and their actual viewership numbers, which has kept an air of mystery around much of its programming.

Here are a few specific examples of shows that could become discussed as a result of this new measurement.

“House of Cards” or “Orange Is the New Black” – For the first time, we will actually start to learn just how many people are actually watching these shows, or at least a solid estimate. It’s going to be interesting to see if the viewer count is actually anywhere close to the amount of buzz that is out there for both shows.

“Longmire” – Given that the canceled A&E show’s studio is in talks with Netflix on a new season, there are some interesting things that we could learn from this example. For example, knowing the popularity of the first three seasons on Netflix could give us a better inclination as to if the service would want to pick it up. Meanwhile, in the event that the show was picked up, we’d have an idea how it was faring in comparison to other Netflix originals.

A show being licensed – For new shows that could be added to Netflix like a “State of Affairs” or a “black-ish” (just using examples, and not saying that either show is coming onto the service next year), this could let us know how much they are really worth per episode.

This is an interesting development, so we’re going to have some further updates on this very soon. Meanwhile, you can sign up now in the event you want further TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo via Netflix.)