Digital media convergence is turning television practices upside down, including advertising, the motives for political and administrative decisions, and also extends to planning, producing, distributing, and programming content (Buzzard 2012; Cunningham and Silver 2013; Havens 2014; Ihlebæk, Syvertsen and Ytreberg 2014).
This paper focuses on audience ratings, which has historically functioned as the central “currency” informing many of these practices. It discusses changes to the production and accuracy of audience ratings at a time where established standards are being challenged. It is noteworthy that although the shift towards online television distribution entails that viewing become measurable by the existing system for online audience tracking (Gemius), market actors have so far failed in their attempt to consolidate online measurements of viewing time with audience ratings of flow television.
The paper departs from an empirical study based on the existing systems of audience measurement in Denmark for television and online activity (the TV Meter system and Gemius), in order to gauge the shortcomings of these systems in arriving at similar estimates of the impact of streaming on flow television consumption.
The paper argues that even taking into account sources of measurement error stemming from the spread of viewing across different platforms, the current system is incapable of accurately tracing an audience activity that is increasingly cross-media, time-shifted, mobile, and on-demand. It discusses the potential impact of declining accuracy of audience measurement on market actors’ decisions concerning streaming, as well as potential strategies for improving audience measurement.