The Nielsen Company today announced the launch of Nielsen On Demand Reporting & Analytics, a new service that reports on video-on-demand (VOD) usage.

The service offers viewing stats based on real time transactions collected at the set-top box level.

At launch, Comcast will be providing VOD data for the service. Comcast will also begin using the NORA service immediately to analyze trends in VOD usage based on a number of factors, including programmer, program distributor, program category and the box-office revenue.
By providing set top box-level data on actual VOD selections, the service will let Nielsen clients interpret on-demand viewing trends.

The announcement reflects a larger trend of advertisers looking for accurate, real-time stats, and also highlights the podcasting world’s lack of accepted listening/viewing stats. For the foreseeable future, advertisers are going to feel a lot more comfortable putting their money into on-demand television than video podcasts.