The Nielsen Co., the stalwart television-ratings tracker, announced Feb. 20 that it plans to track viewing on additional devices beginning in September. The news was reported by the Hollywood Reporter.
Among the media Nielsen will include are Xboxes and over-the-top devices that stream programming from services such as Amazon, according to the Reporter. In January, PBS signed a deal to bring some of its local and national programming to Xbox and over-the-top device Roku. Amazon also signed a deal with PBS Feb. 1 to become the exclusive paid-streaming home of the mega-popular Downton Abbey.
In recent years PBS has started mining Nielsen data more regularly to garner information about its audience during pledge drives, and it has also pointed out Downton‘s ratings successes.