This week Nielsen begins a controversial move to measure the online behavior of a small subset of its national TV ratings sample, writes MediaBuyerPlanner.

Because the test uses a portion of the same accredited, national TV sample that it uses to generate TV ratings, some researchers are pointing out that it could potentially impact TV ratings results. Nielsen has responded that the impact of measuring both TV and online behavior in a small subset would be minimal, but that they will monitor the situation closely, says MediaPost.

If the test goes well, Nielsen plans to expand the integration of TV and online measurement beyond the small subset as an early foundation for eventually including online viewing in its television currency.

Nielsen pointed out that the use of traditional TV programs online has been expanding. On average, Americans who use a PC or laptop to view video spend 1.5 hours per day doing so, and they watch 2.5 times as much professional video content as they do user-generated video content on their PC or laptop, according to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index Pulse survey.