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Epic Games Store will randomly ask users to rate games to prevent review bombing
Epic is trying to improve cross-play for all platforms too.
Spotify adds listener ratings for podcasts
Now you can rate your favorite, or least favorite, podcasts on Spotify.
Nielsen says people mostly streamed old network shows, not new releases
Many more viewers watched older network shows like The Office, Grey’s Anatomy and Criminal Minds, according to Nielsen’s first-ever yearly streaming show rankings and the NY Times.
Loot box warning added to game rating labels in the US and Europe
The ESRB's 'Includes Random Items' label will more clearly reveal games with loot boxes.
Uber will deactivate riders with low ratings
Rude behavior or leaving trash behind could get you booted from Uber. The company has added "ratings-based rider deactivations" to its safety policy. Users can now get kicked off the app if they develop a "significantly below average rating."
Google pulled 'millions' of junk Play Store ratings in one week
Google is just as frustrated with bogus app reviews as you are, and it's apparently bending over backwards to improve the trustworthiness of the feedback you see. The company instituted a system this year that uses a mix of AI and human oversight to cull junk Play Store reviews and the apps that promote them, and the results are slightly intimidating. In an unspecified recent week, Google removed "millions" of dodgy ratings and reviews, and "thousands" of apps encouraging shady behavior. There are a lot of attempts to game Android app reviews, in other words.
Nielsen steps up its tracking of digital gaming and esports
Nielsen has acquired gaming industry intelligence firm SuperData Research to give its ability to track games and esports a boost. According to its announcement, the acquisition will allow it to keep a closer eye on digital gaming use, sales and audiences. It will also give the company a way to track spending on esports events, tickets, marketing and sponsorships. In other words, SuperData will beef up Nielsen's capability to measure various metrics other than sales alone for an industry where those metrics matter. VentureBeat notes, though, that it doesn't always have the most accurate figures.
Netflix will remove user reviews from its website next month
Aside from a looming 'Ultra' tier that could raise prices while restricting features like 4K, HDR or simultaneous streams, Netflix has recently notified users of one feature that's definitely going away: written user reviews. While Netflix dropped the five-star rating system from its apps early last year, on the website users can still write down and share their thoughts.
Nielsen to include YouTube TV viewing figures in its local ratings
As users cut cords and go with live TV streaming services like Hulu and Sling TV, it gets harder for broadcasters to gauge those all-important ratings -- especially on a local level. Now, Nielsen has announced that it will start measuring local TV audiences for YouTube TV, one of the newest cord-cutting TV services. That will give advertisers "a full account of all viewing activity, irrespective of distribution channel," said Nielsen's Jeff Wender.
Leaked Amazon figures show TV drives millions of Prime signups
Amazon is notoriously secretive about its sales figures, from how many Kindles it has sold to how many subscribers pay for Prime. Reuters is reporting that it has obtained leaked documents that, if true, will shed plenty of light on at least one part of Amazon's business -- Prime Video. If you thought Amazon was keeping quiet because its projects were flops, think again, because some of its shows are actually more popular than some of the fare you'll find on basic cable.
Nielsen is tracking streaming services like it does broadcast TV
To address the new normal of cord cutting, Nielsen is going to start tracking subscription-based streaming numbers in a big way. The idea is to measure streaming services in the same way that the outfit has tracked broadcast TV for decades: with demographic info and the number of people streaming a program. As TechCrunch notes, Nielsen is only tracking Netflix for now, but expects to start getting data from Amazon and Hulu streaming services by next year.
Netflix's overly simplified thumb ratings are here
The rumors are true: Netflix is dropping its star-based rating system in favor of "Thumbs," a new way for you to vote up (like) or down (don't like) on movies and TV shows that show up on your feed. As Variety reported earlier this month, the streaming service began testing this feature in 2016, but only with a small number of subscribers. Starting today though, Netflix will start rolling it out to all users on its site, mobile apps, gaming consoles, set-top boxes and smart TVs.
AT&T's deal with Nielsen promises more accurate TV ratings
For years, TV ratings data has revolved around a small number of households using specialized gear to track their viewing habits. That's not completely representative of what the broader public is watching, is it? However, the accuracy is about to jump by leaps and bounds. Mere months after a deal with Dish, Nielsen has forged a multi-year agreement with AT&T to use set-top box data (thankfully, anonymized) to help determine ratings. Info from DirecTV and U-Verse subscribers will supply Nielsen with large-scale viewing patterns on top of its existing samples, providing a clearer picture of the American TV landscape.
Google Search experiment asks users to rate movies and TV shows
Try looking up a movie on Google -- if you notice a thumbs up and a thumbs down sign inside the movie's info box, you're among the few who has access to the tech titan's new experimental feature. The big G has confirmed to Search Engine Land that it has begun testing out a way for users to rate films and TV shows right within search results. As you can see in the image below the fold, you can find either option above the usual IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes ratings. There's even a new "Google users" percentage right next to those two.
Recommended Reading: How reliable are internet movie ratings?
'Ghostbusters' is a perfect example of how internet movie ratings are broken Walt Hickey, FiveThirtyEight The reboot of the 1984 classic hits theaters this weekend, but the criticism of the new Ghostbusters has been flying for months. FiveThirtyEight takes a close look at internet ratings for the film as a way of showing that you shouldn't always rely on those numbers when making a decision about which movie to see. "People put far too much faith in numbers that are preliminary, decontextualized and, in the end, oversimplified," Hickey concludes.
Nielsen starts breaking down TV streams by device next month
Nielsen already tracks what you're watching via gizmos like Apple TV, Roku and PlayStation, but has always lumped those viewing statistics together. That changes come April 25th when the ratings-minded folks start breaking over-the-top viewership data (Netflix or Hulu, for example) down by device, according to Variety. The "brand-level" connected device data will pull from Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast and Xbox in addition to the ones mentioned above. This should give content owners a better idea of what platforms their programming is being watched on most.
Netflix reminds us that its price hike to $10 is coming
Now that Netflix is worldwide, how are things going with its business? The company announced its quarterly earnings today (PDF), and noted that its number of subscribers has reached nearly 45 million in the US, and nearly 75 million worldwide. It also reminded us of an important milestone that's coming up soon, and might affect how much you pay for streaming. It announced a pair of price hikes over the last couple of years, but grandfathered existing users in at the old rates of $8 or $9. That price hold will start expiring in a few months, but the company notes that if $10 per month is just too much to pay, users can drop down to the "basic" $8 package -- if they can live without HD.
Facebook helps you find highly-rated local businesses
Facebook is putting those business ratings you've been entering on its Pages to work. With a new Professional Services portal, the social network lets you search for the highest-rated businesses if your area in a variety of categories. When you need to find a contractor, plumber, doctor, event planner, mechanic or dog groomer (just to name a few), the new Facebook page is ready to help.
Rate your friends like they're restaurants with Peeple
A 'Yelp'-style app for rating people is not a new idea, but nobody's been terrible enough to actually build one in real life -- until now. A startup company has launched an app called "Peeple" which has already raised $7.6 million in venture capital, according to the Washington Post. It lets anyone with a Facebook account and cell phone rate another person and assign them a star rating out of five in one of three categories: personal, professional and romantic. Though Peeple calls itself "a positivity app for positive people," the idea of the app is largely being panned on social media.
Age ratings for online UK music videos are here to stay
After a six-month trial, the UK government has successfully persuaded record labels, YouTube and Vevo to display age ratings on music videos. Under the new system, labels will pass their work onto the BBFC before sending the final rating onto YouTube and Vevo. The video will then list the classification in its description and, in YouTube's case, be restricted to adult viewers if it's been given an 18. Vevo says it's looking at a similar system that would link ratings to age controls on its site, but we're still waiting on the details.
