Tweets can boost TV ratings, study claims The methodology used for this study was developed by Nobel Prize-winning economist Clive Granger, and is widely used in the fields of econometrics, physics, and neuroscience, among others. "These results substantiate what many of our TV partners have been telling us anecdotally for years: namely, that Twitter drives tune-in, especially for live, linear television programming," said Ali Rowghani, Twitter's Chief Operating Officer. As the world's preeminent real-time social communication medium, Twitter is a complementary tool for broadcasters to engage their audience, drive conversation about their programming, and increase tune-in. Paul Donato, Chief Research Officer at Nielsen, added: "This rigorous, research-based approach provides our clients and the media industry as a whole with a better understanding of the interplay between Twitter and broadcast TV viewing." While the study's findings will be music to the ears of TV networks, many of which have invested heavily in social media, it is worth noting that Nielsen and Twitter are business partners, so the study may provoke some skepticism. Mitchell J. Lovett, a professor at the University of Rochester who has studied Twitter-television correlations, told The New York Times that it is hard to determine whether Twitter activity simply reflects existing interest rather than causes it.