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.

The world’s major mobile phone operators have joined up in an effort to establish media measurement practices in mobile advertising. If they manage to secure a de facto standard then it will help them retain a larger share of the mobile advertising market. Competitors for this space include the mobile networks, content providers and handset manufacturers. All three sectors are desperate to grab a slice of the huge revenues mobile ads will deliver in the future.

The GSM Association will test its practices in the UK first. A working group will work out metrics and measurement processes for mobile advertising. It’s unlikely that major players like Google will sit back and watch quietly. Expect a measurement battleground to develop quickly.

The GSM association’s CEO, Rob Conway, tells us:

“The commitment of all five UK operators to this initiative is critical for the development and future success of mobile as an advertising channel. The working group and the GSMA will facilitate crucial engagement between mobile operators, advertisers and agencies, to help ensure that mobile advertising realises its full potential for the benefit of all players in the ecosystem.”

Note that Mr Conway fails to mention the poor old content providers or operators…

Just bought by WPP, Integrated Media Measurement delivers media data via a mobile phone by sampling ambient audio noise. So Peoplemeter households can look forwards to a future with one less gadget in the house. The system tracks all this stuff:

• Television viewing outside the home
• Time-shifted and on-demand viewing
• Radio
• DVDs, audio CDs
• Theatrical films, live concerts and sporting events
• Mobile phone videos and games

But kind of misses out on quiet stuff like magazine reading and internet browsing.