Andre Yoskowitz
15 May 2009 14:53
Most online publishers use internal numbers, as well as those reported by Nielsen and comScore, to measure audience viewership. The numbers are never equal, but the discrepancies are usually not too bad. And then there is Hulu.
Last month, Nielsen reported that the popular video site had 8.9 million unique users for the month, while comScore reported a much higher 42 million for the same period. For April, the numbers get even crazier. Nielsen says viewers watched 373 million video streams, but at the same time showed a big decline in unique viewers, moving to 7.4 million for the period. Quantcast however, another online measurement provider, says they see no evidence of a decline in unique viewership.
Says Hulu of the Nielsen numbers: "There is work to be done."
The problem however, is in the fact that online measurement is still an unreliable science which can adversely affect advertising decisions.