Nielsen ratings and box office totals can show how many people watched first-run shows or actually went to a theater to see a new movie. Those numbers don't represent if people continued to talk about their entertainment in the days after and where they shared their excitement or disappointment.
The new Digital Audience Ratings (DAR) from ListenFirst Media does exactly that by measuring fan engagement across multiple digital platforms. The syndicated rating system measures how TV show and movie titles perform across Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter, Wikipedia and YouTube and combines them into "one easy-to-understand numeric score," according to Variety, who will publish the weekly results.
ListenFirst Media created the ratings system in response to studios and networks asking the same question: "How do I value audience engagement for film and television across digital/social platforms in a digestible and consistent manner?" according to co-founder and CEO Jason Klein.
For the film industry, the DAR can track fan engagement on movies not only in theaters, but also upcoming movies months or years before they premiere. For example, the movie "Annabelle" rated at the top for the week of Aug. 20 to Aug. 26 and doesn't premiere until October.
TV executives can see what fans are watching in-season, out-of-season and streaming through platforms like Netflix or Amazon. "Jimmy Kimmel Live" ranked No. 1 for TV's weekly top 10 thanks to his mini-"Friends" reunion, and "The Simpsons" came in second during its 11-day, 552-episodes marathon.
"We're always looking for some measurement that our entire industy can hold up as the standard," Elias Plishner, executive VP of worldwide digital marketing for Sony Pictures Entertainment, told Variety. "ListenFirst Media provides that measurement instead of everyone using dozens of different services, which is like talking different languages."
More than 40 major studios, broadcast networks and cable channels have signed on as launch partners, including Sony Pictures as well as A+E Networks, AMC Networks, The CW, Relativity Media, Universal Pictures and USA Networks.
"We're providing the measurement standard to quantify audience engagement in a way that complements traditional tracking and ratings, which don't take these critical indicators into account," Klein said.
The DAR is based on an algorithm that combines figures such as audience growth, page/profile views, page-level and post-level interactions, hashtag volume and Wikipedia page views for all television program and film pages. The latter provides data on general search for a title.
