Air apparent: Ratings go from TV to Sina Weibo

CSM Media Research, a leading television ratings analysis company, announced on Wednesday the official launch of China's first social media-based big data system to evaluate TV shows in partnership with Sina Weibo, a Twitter-like microblogging platform in China.

The system, also called the Weibo TV index in the beta version, was based on the product system and structure co-developed by Twitter Inc and Kantar Media - CSM's foreign parent company - and then was tailored to China's TV industry.

In 2012, Twitter teamed up with The Nielsen Co, the major TV ratings system, in creating the Nielsen Twitter TV Rating in the United States market. It is a social measurement of TV programs' popularity.