Illustration by The New York Times

Nielsen, the big name in audience ratings and other media metrics, will soon be adjusting its numbers for TV viewership to account for students while they’re at school.

This is a big deal for programs such as Comedy Central’s Drawn Together, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and The Colbert Report, which will all see a boost in ratings as their audiences tend to attract the late night procrastinators in dorms across the country.

The news is also a reminder of how much emphasis advertisers put on TV and these ratings here in the U.S. That emphasis is dying, however, as more and more organizations turn their heads toward the Web. In doesn’t end there, though…

“The holy grail here is how to measure consumers as they go from TV to iPod to cellphone and back,” said Alan Wurtzel, president of research for NBC Universal.

But the first step — measuring students’ viewing of television — comes with its own pitfalls. College students still watch a significant amount of television, spending three and a half hours a day tuned in on average, about an hour less than all people on average, according to Nielsen.

Via The New York Times.

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