March 24, 2005
Nielsen Will Address Potential Undercounting of Minority TV Viewers By STUART ELLIOTT NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/24/business/media/24adco.html?pagewanted=print&position=
CONTINUING a counteroffensive against critics of the way it is changing the measurement of television ratings in urban markets, Nielsen Media Research said yesterday that it would begin to adopt many of the steps recommended by a task force formed to help alleviate the dispute.
The task force, which was formed in April by Nielsen, released its report yesterday. The recommendations range from the technical, on the fault rates of meters used by Nielsen to gather data; to the practical, on the composition of the staff Nielsen sends into the field; to the idealistic, urging the creation of "a culture of diversity" within Nielsen.
The 21 members of the task force, meant to be independent of the company, were selected in June. They were balanced among blacks, Hispanics and whites to reflect the nature of the dispute, which centers on whether the changes Nielsen is making undercount minority TV viewers. The task force members were chosen in consultation with Representative Charles H. Rangel, Democrat of New York.
"I am confident that Nielsen is now moving in the right direction," Mr. Rangel said in a statement. He commented after the report was presented by the chairwoman of the task force, Cardiss Collins, a former Democratic representative from Illinois, to Susan D. Whiting, the president and chief executive of Nielsen. Nielsen posted the report on a Web site (everyonecounts.tv).
"The process was very independent," Suzanna Valdez, the executive director of the task force, said yesterday in a telephone interview. "The task force did its own work, extensive work, for eight months, meeting with stakeholders in the industry, researchers, broadcasters and community leaders."
The report is the third time in a month that Nielsen, a division of VNU, has taken major additional measures to respond to complaints about how it gathers TV ratings data. The steps included a proposal to set aside $2.5 million for a year's worth of research on Nielsen's methodology, to be conducted in cooperation with clients, and a lengthy speech delivered by Ms. Whiting to clients in which she pledged that the company would be more responsive.
"I certainly hope that the combination of an independent review, the client initiatives and getting the facts out shows we're being responsive and open," Ms. Whiting said yesterday in a telephone interview. "That's the point."
The goal of Nielsen's charm initiative is to dampen a growing clamor - fed by opponents that include a large client, the News Corporation - to create an independent alliance of media industry executives that would supplant Nielsen in supervising efforts to improve ways to measure TV viewership.
The opponents, who once concentrated their protests in the big cities where they say Nielsen is delivering flawed ratings data, have been shifting their efforts to Washington. They hope to interest Congress or the Federal Trade Commission in taking on oversight of the nation's television ratings system.
The task force was charged with examining the methodology and other issues that led Nielsen to almost a year of criticism from community organizations, urban officeholders and a national group called the Don't Count Us Out Coalition. The coalition is backed financially and logistically by the News Corporation, whose Fox Television Stations division owns stations in the big-city markets where Nielsen has been changing its ratings methodology.
"We commend Cardiss Collins and the task force on their outstanding work and strong recommendations," Cynthia Rotunno, executive director of the coalition, said in a statement, adding that her group "has long championed these reforms."
"Given the history of Nielsen and its status as an unregulated monopoly," Ms. Rotunno said, getting it to adopt the recommendations "requires independent oversight." In a document provided with her statement, the coalition describing the formation of the task force as a response to its efforts "to get Nielsen to finally hold itself accountable."
In a separate statement, Lachlan Murdoch, chairman of the Fox Television Stations division, described the recommendations as a "vindication." He said he looked forward to working with the task force and others to "ensure Nielsen is held accountable to the full and timely implementation of these recommendations."
The coalition and other critics have said that the changes Nielsen was making in how it gathers ratings data in urban markets, primarily through new technology known as local people meters, would significantly undercount black and Hispanic viewers. The meters are intended to replace the paper diaries and set-top boxes Nielsen has used for decades to measure viewership in cities like Chicago, Los Angeles and New York.
The arguments over the data resonate across the advertising, marketing and media worlds because Nielsen numbers are used by virtually everyone involved in American commercial television. The data are crucial in helping to determine which shows advertisers support or shun as they decide where to run - or not run - billions of dollars worth of spots. That in turn helps to determine which shows the stations and networks schedule or cancel.
"While we have made a number of specific suggestions about how Nielsen can and should improve its measurement of our changing population," the task force wrote in its report, "we also need to point out that the amount and quality of TV ratings data generated daily by Nielsen for hundreds of local stations and networks has been vital to the success of the U.S. television industry."
Nielsen found those remarks so supportive of its arguments against the critics that it placed an excerpt almost at the very top of the release announcing the report.
On the technical side, many recommendations address how Nielsen could reduce the fault rates of meters in minority households, which are higher than those in other households.
The task force suggested the formation of an independent council to advise on research issues, which Nielsen agreed to do.
The task force also suggested that Nielsen offer "one-on-one training of individuals in households that are at high risk for faulting," which Nielsen also agreed to do.
One recommendation that Nielsen said it would study asked it to oversample minority members in local people meter markets to improve the accuracy of the ratings; Ms. Whiting said such a change would require further discussion with clients and specialists.
Among the practical recommendations is one that Nielsen hire more women as field representatives to ask households to become Nielsen families because they typically receive better responses than their male counterparts. Another is that households with high fault rates and no telephones be provided with phone lines.
Among the more intangible recommendations is one that Nielsen form an internal "Office of Domestic Expanding Markets" that would help develop an internal diversity culture. Nielsen said it would "carefully consider" the proposal.
The task force report also addresses the issue more broadly, as its members expressed concern that the ratings dispute not "distract attention" from a larger issue: the television industry's "longstanding failure to adequately represent persons of color on television or in positions of authority."
================================ George Antunes, Political Science Dept University of Houston; Houston, TX 77204 Voice: 713-743-3923 Fax: 713-743-3927 antunes at uh dot edu
Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post.
_______________________________________________
MEDIANEWS mailing list medianews@twiar.org
To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
