Twitter can sometimes cause people to turn on the TV and vice versa, research from media measurement firm Nielsen has revealed.
The Twitter Causation Study compared minute-by-minute tweets and TV ratings for 221 episodes of television programmes on major networks.
It found that related tweets caused significant changes in TV rating 29% of the time.
And changes in minute-by-minute TV ratings had an effect on the volume of related Tweets 48% of the time, meaning that as more viewers tuned in, more tweets were tweeted.
Paul Donato, CRO at Nielsen, said: "Using time series analysis, we saw a statistically significant causal influence indicating that a spike in TV ratings can increase the volume of Tweets, and, conversely, a spike in Tweets can increase tune-in."
The research also found that some varieties of shows were much more likely to benefit from Twitter conversation than others.
The methodology used for this study was developed by Nobel-winning economist Clive Granger and is widely used in the fields of econometrics, physics and neuroscience.
Nielsen and Twitter have teamed up to promote Nielsen Twitter TV Rating, which measures online conversations about shows.
