• by Wayne Friedman , December 17, 2012

Nielsen and Twitter are creating a social media TV rating service -- all to capture TV-related content activity to trend rapidly growing second-screen activity.

The new service, called The Nielsen Twitter TV Rating, will complement Nielsen’s existing TV ratings, giving TV networks and advertisers real-time metrics for understanding TV audience social activity. 

This adds to Nielsen's NM Incite’s SocialGuide audience engagement analytics platform. NM Incite is a joint venture between Nielsen and McKinsey & Co., and the hub of Nielsen’s social media analytics efforts.

“Our users love the shared experience of watching television while engaging with other viewers and show talent," says Chloe Sladden, vice president of media for Twitter. "Twitter has become the world's digital water cooler, where conversations about TV happen in real-time. Nielsen is who the networks rely on to give better content to viewers and clearer results to marketers."

Twitter says it has more than 140 million active users who send one billion Tweets every two-and-a-half days.

David F. Poltrack, chief research officer of CBS Corp., said: “The proliferation of smartphones and tablets has generated a substantial ‘connected’ TV audience that is simultaneously watching television and accessing the Internet through these devices. This, in turn, will continue to create the opportunity for content providers like CBS to offer engaging interactive features for our viewers."

SocialGuide, recently acquired by Nielsen and NM Incite, captures Twitter TV activity for all U.S. programming across 234 TV channels in English and Spanish, and more than 36,000 programs. 

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