“The FCC should proceed cautiously in evaluating the need for regulation,” said Whiting.  “Consumers increasingly choose to view their favorite shows from many different sources and incorporate media in their lives in many new ways.  Content owners need flexibility to adapt to these changes and meet consumer demand across all platforms.”

Whiting appeared as part of a panel about online video distribution considerations at a FCC forum in Chicago regarding the proposed merger of NBC Universal and Comcast.  While taking no position on the proposed merger, Whiting briefed the commission on the evolving media landscape by sharing Nielsen’s data on video consumption by the American public in an effort to give it a better understanding of the current and future market for video content.

“Over the last four years, we have seen the continuing increase in the integration of media platforms for the distribution and consumption of video.  Consumers want and expect to get video when they want it, where they want it and are willing to use whatever devices works best for them,” concluded Whiting.

Download Susan Whiting’s complete prepared remarks to the FCC.

Read Nielsen’s most recent Three Screen report.

All three participants couldn’t stress strongly enough that the social landscape has changed and that the relationship between brands and consumer has been flipped on its head because of the way consumers connect. So much influence (and insight) is now in the hands (and tweets, posts, votes and updates) of the consumer. “Consumers expect brands to be listening,” said Blackshaw. “It’s a no-blink environment for brands.” Consumers aren’t always paying attention to your marketing message, warned Taqqu, but they are paying attention to each other. Brand loyalty is in no way a lock for today’s consumer who is constantly reevaluating brands.

The power and appeal of social media is not just hype. The facts bear it out. After friends and family, the number one driver for brand trust is online reviews and feedback from the social media space. If brands believe that trust is central to their message and their marketing, then social networks must be part of the ROI equation. Eliason notes the immediacy of response can be not only a huge credibility and trust builder with customers, it can also help the bottom line. He said a when customer tweets about a station outage, it saves Comcast considerable time and money in its response effort because information was received in real time.

Fast Facts

• More than 40% of consumers go online to check reviews and consumer feedback before purchasing consumer electronics.
• 60% of those going online have visited a social network, with half going back everyday according to Facebook.
• 23% of social network users expect companies to listen and respond to what is said online

The Big Question
A conference attendee asked if brands were alienating their older customers by focusing on Twitter, or blogs. Comcast’s Eliason stressed the importance of meeting the customer where they are. It’s critical that brands have multiple channels to allow feedback. While Twitter customer service is hot right now, traditional surveys, call centers and focus groups aren’t going away. Just like every social media space is different, every interaction point is different, so brands need to rethink and expand all their customer touchpoints.

When it comes to making television programs available online, many companies are testing the consumer adoption of different business models and the technology required for each. In recent months we’ve heard about initiatives such as “OnDemand Online” and “TV Everywhere” from Comcast and Time Warner Cable, respectively. The goal is to make available TV shows online to authenticated cable subscribers, at no cost, in the format that each show was originally presented on television – the same program, the same national commercials. These initiatives have received a lot of support from cable and broadcast network programmers.

OnDemand Online, TV Everywhere and similar offerings could provide the best way for video content providers to monetize TV programs online. Importantly, these initiatives are very compatible with Nielsen’s television ratings system; that is, online audiences viewing these programs could be included in Nielsen’s TV ratings.

At Nielsen, OnDemand Online and TV Everywhere are examples of what we refer to as the “Extended Screen” — initiatives that treat the computer as another screen in the home used to watch television. In fact, we’re already working to capture television viewing that takes place online and to add that viewing back in to the ratings. That includes in our National C3 ratings.

How will we be able to do this? It’s all part of our Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement (A2/M2) initiative. Nielsen has developed an Internet software meter that uses the same technology to measure video viewing online as the Nielsen Active/Passive (A/P) Meter does for television. We’ve currently installed this Internet software meter among 375 homes in our National People Meter panel, allowing us to evaluate the measurement of Internet usage alongside TV usage. Given that more than $70 billion of television advertising is bought and sold using Nielsen ratings, we are careful not to take any actions that would dilute the reliability of the core television ratings data. Consequently, we are undertaking an extensive evaluation program before fully integrating television and Internet measurement.

The results of our evaluation show tremendous promise to date. We are positioned to start the roll out of the Internet meter to all People Meter households before the end of this year, with complete installation in 2010 and full implementation in early 2011. In the meantime, we will continue discussions with all our clients about their Extended Screen initiatives and will work with MSOs and programmers to support their tests of OnDemand Online and TV Everywhere. We will also continue our work on other TV/Internet cross platform initiatives such as the TV/Internet Convergence Panel, our TV/Online data fusion and our measurement of online video through VideoCensus. Additionally, we have deployed the Internet software meter to our online panel of over 230,000 individuals to further measure program usage online.

Though no one knows for sure which business models for online video will emerge as the most successful, Nielsen will be prepared to measure audiences no matter which ones prevail.

If you think the internet can support unlimited content and you’ve been enjoying your all-you-can-eat web surfing… just wait. At the same time that consumers are increasing their use of the internet to view content at their convenience, some cable companies and ISPs are setting limits on how much content you can access in any given month – or risk paying a penalty for going over the limit the same way your phone company budgets your anytime minutes.

Comcast has levied a 250-gigabyte cap on its users, (that’s about 120 full-length standard definition movies or 65,000 songs). Time Warner Cable has a program of bandwidth caps that lets customers choose from several levels, ranging from 5GB to 40GB at prices that range from $29.95 to $54.90 a month, with the possibility of a 100GB tier in the future. Verizon’s FiOS service has said it has no immediate plan to cap bandwidth usage.

This boom in video streaming is just getting started. Case in point: the uber-growth of Hulu. Unique viewers to that site alone have increased just over five-fold from February 2008 to February 2009. From September 2008 through February 2009, unique viewers have grown 49%, while the time spent viewing has risen 54% (from 114.7 minutes to 176.9 minutes).

Not only are more consumers viewing video content, but they tend to spend increasingly more time on the numerous outlets (iTunes, Netflix, Xbox 360) consumers have for accessing content. YouTube has also just begun offering full-length TV shows and movies at youtube.com/shows.

Cable companies have a right to control their pipes as they wish, but smaller, more cost-effective caps may have a real effect on how not only individuals consume content, but also families with media-hungry kids and teens. Lower caps increasingly come in to play as the premise of caps move away from individual usage to combined usage as habits of downloading movies, video, music, and so on may change given the fear of overage costs, especially as personal and household budgets tighten.

At this point, it appears consumers are not yet willing to accept bandwidth caps.  Responding to consumer and political social media buzz, Time Warner Cable announced that it would halt current expansion plans for caps in additional cities.

How much extra will you as a consumer be willing to pay to see, read, watch or play something over the Internet? Will you change your viewing/consumption habits before you change what you pay for internet access?

Nielsen Online’s Pete Blackshaw gave a keynote speech on Friday, November 14^th, at the WOMMA Summit in Las Vegas in which he stressed the importance of companies’ staying grounded in the “bread and butter,” the core values and core issues of their businesses, and not just focusing on the hottest CGM buzz words. These core objectives, especially customer service and product experience, play a critical role in motivating consumers to spread positive or negative word of mouth buzz.

One brand working hard to improve its customer service and reverse the negative perception that currently exists in the minds of some consumers, is Nielsen Online client, Comcast. During Pete’s keynote speech, he enlisted Frank Eliason, the Director of Digital Care at Comcast, to provide examples of the interesting work his team is doing to improve customer service at Comcast. Comcast’s approach includes a five tier feedback platform including:

1. Comcast Central (email, phone, website)
2. Comcast Customer Connect (Facebook, Twitter)
3. Communities (Peer-to-Peer help)
4. Corporate Blog
5. Blogging on Other Sites (Consumerist, etc)

A few of the important takeaways from Eliason’s presentation:

• Listen to Your Customers
• Create a Rapid Response Culture
• Learn From Everyone in Your Organization

Afterwards, Pete reviewed the six drivers of credibility he outlines in his new book, “Satisfied Customers Tell Three Friends, Angry Customers Tell 3000″ and did a quick round of consulting in front of the symposium audience. (Pete heads Nielsen Online’s Digital Strategic Services). He then highlighted some of the key areas of credibility in which he thinks Comcast is winning with consumers and areas that Comcast has yet to master.

In case you missed it, you can read more about Pete’s keynote and see video highlights at the links below:

Video Highlights from WOMMA Summit 2008

Approaching WOMM Through Customer Service

Pete Blackshaw on Twitter

AT&T Worldnet Search (+203.8%) and Comcast Search (+30.9%) showed the largest year-over-year growth for the time period.

Search providers are ranked by the total number of search queries conducted at the provider.

View the full press release.

Read coverage of Nielsen’s findings in the San Jose Mercury News.

View Nielsen’s ranking of the top online search providers in the U.S. for the previous month.