Nielsen has updated its Twitter TV Ratings service with the launch of demographic data for over 250 U.S. TV networks.
The service lets advertisers identify the age and gender of those who are both tweeting about various TV shows and events, as well as those who are viewing those tweets.
In 2013, 36 million people sent tweets about TV in the US, amounting to 990 million total tweets revolving around television.
In a report released on Monday, Nielsen said its Twitter data will now include the first-ever gender and age metrics for 273 broadcast and cable programs.
On average, the people tweeting about sports events skewed 79 percent male, while those tweeting about reality programs skewed 65 percent female.
Reality programs also had a younger mix of ages — 75 percent of tweeters were below the age of 35, while that age group dropped to 63 percent for comedies.
Nielsen explained: “For example, a program where Twitter TV Authors [as it calls those writing tweets] are 80 percent male may have a Twitter TV Audience that is that is 60 percent female. This indicates that Twitter TV can be used as an important tool to reach audiences beyond a program’s core viewership.” This broader tweet-viewing demographic could also mean that TV shows whose audience skews older could reach a younger audience by nature of the tweets viewed by Twitter users.
The program episode skewing oldest counted 85 percent of its Twitter TV Authors above the age of 35, while 98 percent of the Twitter Authors for the youngest-skewing program were below the age of 35, said Nielsen in a blog post detailing these findings further. In addition, on average, the Twitter TV Authors for Sports Events skewed 79 percent male, while Reality programs skewed 65 percent female. Reality programs also had a younger mix of Twitter TV Authors: 75 percent were below the age of 35. Meanwhile, 63 percent of Authors were below 35 for Comedy programs.
The company says the ability to view the demographic data from TV-related tweets will now be delivered overnight for programming across the supported networks at the at the episode, program, network, and total TV levels.
Network, agency, and advertiser clients can access Demographics for Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings through Nielsen SocialGuide Intelligence (NSGI), including its API, and Nielsen National Television View (NNTV).
Nielsen first announced its TV Ratings feature in partnership with Twitter in late 2012, positioning it as a tool that advertisers could use to create campaigns targeting specific Twitter customers, as well as a tool ad execs could use to help identify TV shows with lower ratings but a core group of heavily engaged fans. Twitter could also help producers figure out how their audience is responding to shows, and why some episodes drew in more viewers than others.
View the infographic outlining some of the key demographic Twitter TV trends below:
