Having just thrown out the grand Project Apollo single source trials, Nielsen immediately announced a study on screen media consumption. 450 consumers are going to have their media usage tracked very carefully in two waves this year. Nielsen employees will literally follow these panel members around in Philadelphia, Seattle, Dallas, Atlanta and Chicago. Presumably because they can’t be trusted to fill in their own diaries. Has media measurement really come to this?

The $3.5 million venture is being done together with the US Committee for Research Excellence which is an independent forum created by Nielsen and is a grouping of agencies, media and clients. Nielsen staff will literally following panel members around all day. From waking up in the morning until closing the bedroom door, the panel members will be tracked every 10 seconds and watched with all their media consumption habits logged onto handheld computers.

Paul Donato, Chief Research Officer for The Nielsen Company, tells us:

“In a world where people increasingly watch programming online, on mobile devices and outside the home, this study will help us better understand how people are changing the way they consume media so that we can make informed decisions on how to measure it.”

The whole excercise is focused on screen use, whether it’s tv, computer screens, digital billboards or mobile phones or anything else that’s a screen. Panel members will also get the chance to buy new media gadgets cheaply. Nielsen reckons that this will help them predict future consumption patterns, particularly drops in tv audiences.