Today Nielsen announced a pilot program for Nielsen Digital Program Ratings, which will measure audiences for TV content viewed online. A+E, ABC, AOL, CBS, The CW, Discovery Communications, FOX, NBC and Univision have all signed on to participate in this test, which will begin in May and run through July. Nielsen is a global provider of information and insights into what consumers watch and buy.

Nielsen Digital Program Ratings leverage the same measurement methodology used in Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings™, which delivers comprehensive, TV-comparable overnight metrics for online advertising campaigns. The pilot for Nielsen Digital Program Ratings will provide similar overnight audience data, including unique audience, stream counts and reach by age and gender for TV programming viewed online. Together, Nielsen Digital Program Ratings and Nielsen Online Campaign Ratings offer a more holistic view of the online and TV audience for both programming content and associated ad campaigns. The commercial release of Nielsen Digital Program Ratings is targeted for later this year and will include duration weighting of video and reporting of TV-comparable ratings.

“The potential to measure video viewing of specific programs on linear TV as well as the Internet is significant,” said Alan Wurtzel, President of Research and Media Development, NBCUniversal. “It’s an important step toward reaching the ‘holy grail’ of true cross-platform measurement.”

via Nielsen Expands Digital Measurement With Pilot Program for New Content Ratings.