An increase in Twitter volume about live TV correlates with an increase in TV ratings across varying age groups, finds Nielsen in a study conducted with SocialGuide. Analyzing tweets about live TV, the study determined that Twitter was one of 3 statistically significant variables to align with TV ratings. The other two are prior-year rating and advertising spend. Nielsen cautions that the “study doesn’t prove causality.”
Examining the results, Nielsen reveals that for 18-34-year-olds, an 8.5% rise in Twitter volume corresponds with a 1% increase in TV ratings for premiere episodes. By midseason, the relationship is stronger, with a 4.2% gain in Twitter volume corresponding with a 1% rise in TV ratings.
For the 35-49 age group, a 14% increase in Twitter volume corresponded with the 1% rise in ratings for premiere episodes, while for midseason episodes, the associated Twitter volume increase was 8.4%. That suggests that the relationship between Twitter and TV is stronger among the younger group, a fairly intuitive result. Notably, by midseason, Twitter accounted for more variance in ratings for the 18-34 group than advertising spend. Read the rest at MarketingCharts.
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