The CRE presented its latest "Talking Social TV 2" findings on April 10 to another packed room at New York's Time & Life Building.

Among the newly released findings: Nineteen percent of online Americans ages 15-54 say they are reached by social media at least once a day regarding primetime TV.

These findings come on the heels of those announced March 24 at the ARF Re:Think conference. Among the findings revealed there: About one of every six times (16% of the time) a viewer is watching primetime TV, that viewer also is using social media. Slightly less than half of social media activity while users are watching TV (7.3%) relates to the TV programming – meaning 7.3% of viewing occasions involve social media related to the show being watched, defining these occasions as "socially connected viewing." In terms of programming, social media appeared twice as effective for attracting viewers to new shows (6.8%) as returning shows (3.3%).

"Talking Social TV 2" is a follow-up to the CRE's 2013 "Talking Social TV" study. The new study was conducted for the CRE by a research team from Keller Fay Group and fielded by Nielsen Life360. The findings were gleaned from more than 78,000 mobile-app diary entries submitted by nearly 1,700 study participants (age 15-54), across a broad set of demographics, permitting case studies on some 1,600 shows.

Social media is still exceeded by traditional TV promos, which were at least three times as influential in helping viewers find new shows, according to the study results – but it is becoming a more useful tool, notes Beth Rockwood, Senior Vice President, Market Resources and Advertising Sales Research, Discovery Communications, and chair of the CRE's Social Media Committee.

"Social media definitely has become established as a 'second-screen' for a select group of viewers," Rockwood said. "Social marketing seems effective in generating conversation around new season premieres, particularly with certain genres of programming."

The April 10 presentation can be found here - and the March 24 presentation as well as last year's study materials can be found on the Social Media Committee page of the CRE website.

The CRE's Media Consumption & Engagement (MC&E;) committee, chaired by Laura Cowan, Research Director with LIN Media, has commissioned Horowitz Associates to produce a white paper that summarizes the issues surrounding cross platform metrics alignment. The paper will help provide the CRE with a research agenda on the topic moving forward.

In addition to a general overview of cross-platform metrics alignment and an analysis of current measurement methodologies, the white paper will address the views of experts from different sectors about the needs and concerns surrounding cross-platform measurement, including media exposure and engagement.

Among the questions the CRE seeks to help answer:

• Which metrics are best to compare across measurement methodologies?
• What methodological issues are preventing cross platform metrics?
• What differences are there in measurement between content and commercial?

An update will be provided in a subsequent newsletter.

The CRE hosted a March 6 meeting with the Nielsen Audio Advisory Council to discuss participation by the radio industry within the CRE.

Some common issues were voiced by attendees regarding the state of audience measurement of radio – or "audio," as a number of members prefer the sector be called:

• Sample size and stability of granular data on demographics, regions/markets and shorter time periods remain a challenge;
• Listening via digital platforms, in-cars and at-work remains significantly under-represented.

Attendees were of the view that audio not be put in a "silo" as its own media category in research analyses -- rather that it routinely be combined with TV, digital, mobile and cross-platform in measurement efforts.

At the Council's March quarterly meeting, CRE chair Ceril Shagrin encouraged CRE committee chairs to welcome any inquiries from Nielsen Audio clients regarding participation within their committees. "They have a lot to offer," she noted.

In efforts to increase the Council's visibility within the education realm, I would like to encourage you to utilize the CRE's internship webpage. Although the Council does not offer internships, we have established a section on the CRE website to publicize internships that your organization may offer. This functionality allows us to become a resource for students and young professionals who may be interested in pursuing a media career.

Apart from highlighting our interest in education, this is also a great opportunity for your company to test drive new talent and increase productivity with fresh ideas and specialized skill sets.

I encourage you to email your companies' internship listings to me (Jed.Meyer@annalect.com ) so that they can be added to the CRE internship webpage.

Click on the link to view the CRE internship page: http://researchexcellence.com/internship.php

Thank you –
Jed Meyer
U.S. Research Director, Annalect
Chair, CRE Education Committee

The CRE's Insights to Practice Committee has referred recently completed studies and analyses on to Nielsen for further review and possible action.

Included are the Local Measurement Committee's Diary Market Ratings Analysis and the Sample Quality Committee's "Response Bias Revisited" study.

The move follows a regular Insights to Practice meeting on March 13 to discuss these findings.

At its December 2013 meeting, the committee reviewed the findings of the CRE's 2013 studies "Talking Social TV," on the relationship of social-media use to TV viewing, and "TV Untethered," on mobile viewing.

Insights to Practice, chaired by Nancy Gallagher, Senior Vice President, News, Sports and Affiliate Research at NBC Universal, works with Nielsen to inform its research practices, products and services with the practical learnings from the CRE's various studies.

At the CRE's quarterly meeting in March, the Council welcomed as a member John McMorrow, Senior Vice President, Programming & Research, at Cox Television's HRP subsidiary.

Longtime CRE member Jack Wakshlag stepped down at the end of March from his position as Chief Research Officer at Turner Broadcasting. During his 12-year term in that role, he has been credited with innovations such as establishing Turner as the first TV organization to begin coding its programming to measure the impact of over-the-top video consumption on commercial viewing; digital ad load testing that persuaded Turner to place content online with full ad loads; CNN All Screen; Advanced Media Targeting; a highly regarded promo testing data base; and successful program/movie estimating processes, among other achievements. We know readers join us in congratulating Jack on this recently concluded phase of his distinguished career and in wishing him the best on his next endeavors.

The CRE has begun a committee for the study of the effects of commercial pod length. The committee, chaired by Hadassa Gerber, Director of Research for the Syndicated Network Television Association (SNTA), expects to begin its inaugural research effort in 2014.

We're pleased to welcome back Judy Vogel, Vice President of Research at Gannett Company, Inc.; Michael Nathanson, Senior Research Analyst at MoffettNathanson, LLC; and Bryon Schafer, Senior Vice President of Research at Warner Bros. Television. All three were prior CRE members while with other companies, and were re-admitted at the CRE's December quarterly meeting.

The Steering Committee of the CRE voted to approve the establishment of a $30,000 scholarship in the name of Susan Whiting, at her alma mater Denison University. Susan, who will be retiring from her position as vice chair at Nielsen at year-end, was instrumental in the creation of the CRE in 2005.

The CRE welcomes its newest members: