Have you ever wondered where TV ratings come from, or what TV ratings really are? Want to know how television networks decide when to pull the plug on a TV show, or keep it on air? Nielsen takes care of all that. Since 1923, Nielsen has provided statistical information on American radio and television programming, including information on who is watching, and for how long. But like any business that’s been around for almost a century, Nielsen is adapting to changing tides in how we gather and analyze information.
Data Science allows Nielsen to track a wider and more representative grouping of the population. Not only does this allow Nielsen to more effectively analyze what people are watching on television, and when, but now Nielsen has the ability to look at a greater number of households. Although they’re known for specializing in television, over the years, Nielsen has also expanded into web tracking to help media conglomerates understand the types of content their customers are enjoying.
The work at Nielsen is a combination of the advertising and entertainment industries, and is a rapidly changing field. For much of Nielsen’s history, the field of data collection remained fairly stagnant; this is obviously not the case anymore. What makes Nielsen’s work exciting is that it’s a huge corporation putting resources into emerging data science technologies to keep up with the constant advancements in the field of data collection.
The students in the Masters of Data Science program had the opportunity to discuss these specific data science initiatives, as well as future opportunities at Nielsen.
To find out more about Nielsen, visit: https://www.nielsen.com
By Jack Lowery