(28 December 2005 6:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Nielsen Media Research in the US has announced that it wll make three streams of television ratings available to the industry from January 2006.

They are:
Live Ratings - Those who view programmes at the time they initially are aired, excluding any DVR playback.
Live+Same Day (SD) Ratings - Viewers watching live, as well as those who played back programmes on a DVR on the same day of the initial airing.
Live+7 Day Ratings - Viewers watching live, as well as those who played back programs on a DVR within a week of the initial airing.

Nielsen's GM national services Sara Erichson says, "Nielsen is keeping pace with the evolving ways that people watch television, thereby ensuring that our ratings continue to be accurate and reliable. The introduction of audience estimates for DVR is a major milestone in ratings history and will provide the most detailed information ever on how and when people watch television."

The first weekly programme rankings with timeshifted viewing included will be available to the media on 6 January, 2006 through Nielsen's online press room. The traditional season-to-date estimates will be based on a combination of Live+SD viewing for the current two weeks and Live+7 viewing for all weeks prior.