The trio will use Arbitron’s portable people meter (PPM) technology to track content on broadcast and cable TV, while ComScore and Omniture will monitor programming watched via the internet.

Arbitron will also recruit a panel of adults who use broadband internet at home from its PPM panel, which will provide information on the viewing habits of households with both internet and TV.

ComScore chairman Gian Fulgoni said: “”What’s important about this initiative is that it will be one of the first to shed light into cross-channel viewing at the individual, as opposed to the platform or household level. What will matter going forward as the lines between these channels become more and more blurred over time is what the user’s collective viewing experience is.”

NBC Universal’s president of research and media development, Alan Wurtzel, said: “This research initiative will help us enhance that Olympics experience through better insights into how our audience accesses events home or away from home, using the television and the internet.”