With more and more viewership migrating online, real-time data from streaming content offers advertisers a much more accurate picture of how the audience is interacting with ads. Rather than simply relying on overall viewership numbers as a “proxy number” for how many people watched an advertisement, advertisers can tell “whether they’re skipping an ad, or whether they’re not,” Lepe explained. The question now is how the advertising model will change once Nielsen integrates this new information into their metrics.

“It’s going to be like when Google launched the cost-per-click advertising model. Everyone who was used to the display advertising model was afraid that the online ad business was going to collapse, because now people were going to be held accountable about whether or not an advertisement was worth it.” Instead, says Lepe, when advertisers got a more accurate idea of where they were getting the most return on investment for their advertising dollars, they continued to spend; they were just able to allocate their money more effectively.

“I think that the traditional business model for advertising on television is being turned over,” agreed Jim O’Neill, a media research analyst who tracks trends in viewing habits for media and market research company Parks Associates. “It hasn’t reached the end of its life yet, but the business model is going to change, and the amount of choice online will mean that [marketers will] have a smaller, but more loyal, audience watching their content… I have two sons who just graduated from college, neither one of them has ever been connected to a cable system. They’re connected to the internet, and they watch everything on their tablets or on their laptops. They prefer that experience, and they are the ‘Never Were’s who really worry cable providers more than cord-cutters.”

From the article, "Viewers Are Flocking to Streaming Video Content — And So Are Advertisers" by Graeme McMillan.

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