Report: Nielsen To Offer Streaming TV Audience Measure

The television ratings company Nielsen will start measuring the audiences of a couple of major streaming service later in 2015, according to a report Wednesday from Bloomberg. Nielsen Chief Executive Officer Mitch Barns said Tuesday that the company will offer audience measurement on Netflix Inc.

and Amazon.com Inc.'s

Prime service for the first time starting mid-year, according to Bloomberg. Netflix and Amazon.com Inc. won't share audience data sought by television companies seeking to put a value on older programs or gauge the impact of streaming video. A Netflix spokesman told Bloomberg that collecting ratings on streaming services "is an outdated mode of doing business." Amazon didn't respond to Bloomberg's request for comment. Nielsen said recently that about 40 percent of U.S. households subscribe to streaming services, with about two-thirds subscribing to more than one. About 36 percent of households are Netflix subscribers, 13 percent get Amazon Prime and 6.5 percent subscribe to Hulu Plus.