User blog comment:Paul.rea/Teen Wolf News 090514/@comment-11533671-20140907054734/@comment-4091815-20140907062350

Currently online viewing only counts if the download includes all the same commercials of the original broadcast.

Of course, none of the most popular streaming sources include that much of a commercial load.

That is about to change with the next generation Nielsen Ratings but just how much they're going to count and how they're going to distribute and weight that information remains to be seen.

As for MTV shifting their promotions to push viewers online - My evidence for this is anecdotal at best. I've been watching their social networking for this show very closely for several years now. In the run up to season 4, I sensed a shift. It seemed, on twitter specifically, they were pushing their online content more aggressively and with a more corporate tone.

It was obvious to me, thanks in part to my background in journalism and marketing as well as my own social media work, that this was an edict that had come down from above, probably part of a VIACOM strategy. This new tactic says "corporate heavy hand" because it is anathema to anyone who understands how successful social interaction should be handled.

MTV's twitter account used to be really chill and kinda goofy - now it's pretending to be those things while trying to trick people into clicking on an online video link.

As to the why of it all - they're counting clicks because they know that a large part of their target audience is left out of the Nielsen numbers already and they're using their online numbers for their advertisers as a way of saying "see the audience is there, they're just not being counted."

It's late here and I'm a bit rambley - I hope that answered your question.

As to the global issue - copyright and the dogged refusal for each entity to give up their specific rights to sell the show in specific countries will keep any global viewing numbers from being relevant for the foreseeable future. irrelevant in network television at least.

I know several people who already judge the success of their show based on illegal download sites.

I predict - as we saw with the NAPSTER revolution in the music industry at the turn of the century - television's current distribution model is already a dinosaur to most of the people the industry wants to reach.