Nielsen TUT

I've always been baffled by Nielsen ratings because I could never understand how a small sampling of homes with their special set-top box could possibly properly reflect the viewing habits of homes across the country. Sure, it could be a broad survey of behavior but large sums of money for commercial rates are determined by their percentages. The life and death of a particular show can hinge on the viewer numbers that come from Nielsen. Fortunately, it looks like they're finally trying to join us in the 21st Century.

It will be a few more months but the Nielsen folks have announced a new metric called Total Use of Television (TUT) that gathers data from connected TV's. It seems that this will be a more accurate view of what people are actually watching but still a best guess scenario.

I'm curious if there's a world in which there could be a standard reporting API for any network to report data to. An open-source, large data-store, ratings repository if you will. This would allow smaller publishers to get their due and create a more accurate take on user behavior. Admittedly, it'd be a helluva lot of data to crunch but I'm sure someone is up to the challenge.