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Hulu claims Nielsen vastly undercounted its audience

Nielsen, whose figures are often used to determine advertising values, concluded in a study that Hulu has nine million unique viewers. comScore says 42 million. Which is it?

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Computing | by Samuel Axon | Fri May 15, 2009 7:00PM | 0 comments

Cutting edge video streaming site Hulu is taking issue with what some folks in the industry are saying about it.

A group called Nielsen studies media outlets ranging from TV networks to video games to websites, and publishes estimates about the size and demographics of their audiences. These estimates are important because they play a big part in determining how much the outlets can charge for ads.

Nielsen came to the conclusion that Hulu had 8.9 million unique visitors in March, but another group called comScore estimated a drastically higher 42 million. The folks at Hulu aren't making specific claims, but according to the New York Times, it's not pleased with the Nielsen numbers, which they say have been quoted ad nauseam in the media to make the case that the site is not meeting expectations.

Hulu just landed Disney (which owns the ABC television network) as a partner, thereby becoming the most comprehensive professional video content distribution site on Earth — if it wasn't already. But TV networks are unfortunately still weary of this whole internet video phenomenon, and numbers like those provided by Nielsen make all the difference in convincing them and advertisers that the project is a viable one.

We wouldn't be surprised if you've all but thrown away your TV like we have, what with options like Hulu and Netflix Watch Instantly being out there now, but there's no way to measure how many people like us there are. Let's hope that doesn't slow down the flood of pro-quality content.

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Related company news:
Hulu
Related glossary terms:
Streaming video, Netflix Watch Instantly
Related devices and services:
Hulu, Netflix

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