--- description: Twitter already impacts ratings, so now it's Facebook's turn to move the needle title: Nielsen Will Use Facebook Activity for Its Television Ratings image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # Nielsen Will Use Facebook Activity for Its Television Ratings by [Tom Huddleston, Jr. / Fortune](/author/fortune/) ## Tom Huddleston, Jr. / Fortune Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 20, 2016 4:15 PM CUT by [Tom Huddleston, Jr. / Fortune](/author/fortune/) ## Tom Huddleston, Jr. / Fortune Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 20, 2016 4:15 PM CUT The company best known for measuring television ratings is taking a broader look at how social media plays into viewer engagement. Nielsen [announced](http://sites.nielsen.com/newscenter/nielsen-to-measure-total-program-related-conversation-across-twitter-and-facebook/ "undefined") Wednesday it will work with Facebook to include activity on the social network in the research company’s “Social Content Ratings,” which already track television-related conversations on Twitter. In other words, Nielsen wants ratings to reflect viewers’ engagement with TV and streaming by taking their thoughts and reactions to certain shows online for a social media conversation. Nielsen said it will track social media activity related to specific shows during their scheduled airtime as well as on a 24/7 basis. Nielsen said it recently found that almost 60% of people who own a smartphone and/or a tablet use those devices while watching TV at least several times per week to do anything from reading social media conversations about a particular program to looking up information on an actor or athlete on the tube. **_Read more:_** [_This Is How Much Netflix We’re All Watching Every Day_](http://time.com/4186137/netflix-hours-per-day/ "undefined") Sean Casey, president of Nielsen Social, said in a statement, “Nielsen Social measurement is evolving to provide a comprehensive, standardized picture of how consumers are responding to program content through social media, wherever and whenever.” The Social Content Ratings will launch at some point in the first half of this year in the U.S. with the aim of finding out not only to what extent viewers discuss certain programs online, but also how those conversations differ across various social media platforms. Re/code, which [first reported](http://recode.net/2016/01/19/nielsen-wants-to-watch-you-talk-to-your-facebook-friends-about-what-you-watch-on-tv/ "undefined") the Nielsen news Tuesday evening, notes that the research company says it will also eventually track conversations on Facebook-owned Instagram. _This_ [_article_](http://fortune.com/2016/01/20/nielsen-facebook-social-tv/ "undefined") _originally appeared on_ [_Fortune.com_](http://fortune.com "undefined") ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4186898/nielsen-facebook-tv-ratings/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4186898/nielsen-facebook-tv-ratings/"},"headline":"Nielsen Will Use Facebook Activity for Its Television Ratings","datePublished":"2016-01-20T16:15:08.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T14:17:17.809Z","description":"Twitter already impacts ratings, so now it's Facebook's turn to move the needle","url":"https://time.com/4186898/nielsen-facebook-tv-ratings/","keywords":["Social Media","Nielsen","Television","facebook","twitter","Ratings","TV"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tom Huddleston, Jr. / Fortune"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4186898/nielsen-facebook-tv-ratings/","name":"Nielsen Will Use Facebook Activity for Its Television Ratings"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Watch Twitter's First TV Ad","description":"The ad was released during the World Series","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/QuPuYJdY/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-10-28T03:04:46.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/QuPuYJdY.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4186898/nielsen-facebook-tv-ratings/","duration":"PT30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4186898/nielsen-facebook-tv-ratings/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```