AceShowbiz -

As Twitter has become one of the platforms to promote TV programs and for audience to discuss their favorite shows, Nielsen Media Research has introduced a new Twitter TV Ratings. The feature will measure TV shows-related tweets to capture the phenomenon known as social TV.

The product will measure the number of people tweeting about TV programs as well as how many Twitter users are viewing those messages. The company notes that Twitter users viewing tweets about a TV show are about 50 times larger than those writing tweets about the same topic.

"It's exciting that investments are being made to build 360 degree engagement - and drive passion from viewers - around programming," says Steve Hasker, Nielsen's president of global product leadership, in a statement. "This holistic measure of how Twitter activity influences TV engagement will bring clarity to the value of those efforts."

Chloe Sladden, Twitter's vice president of media, said last December when announcing the new TV rating, "As the experience of TV viewing continues to evolve, our TV partners have consistently asked for one common benchmark from which to measure the engagement of their programming. This new metric is intended to answer that request, and to act as a complement and companion to the Nielsen TV rating."

According to Nielsen Twitter TV Ratings, the "Breaking Bad" series finale ranked No. 1 during the week of September 23 with 1.2 million posts that reached 9.3 million Twitter accounts. Two episodes of NBC's "The Voice" and a September 24 episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" also made it into the Top 10.