Nielsen, the name synonymous with the measurement of television viewing, has announced it will begin tracking online viewing of television shows by year’s end. Nielsen says that the offering is a result of client requests for such tracking, but the firm acknowledges that there are significant barriers to collecting the data.

Nielsen surveyed previous television panel participants, asking if they would permit the firm to monitor their Internet usage. Of the 98 eligible participant households surveyed, only 44 agreed to participate; the remainder thought that Internet monitoring was too invasive to their privacy. Marketers are increasingly interested in such tracking, however, due to the shift of viewing habits from television to streaming video available on the Internet.