July 09, 2004
Bingo: Spanish vs. English Media Emerges in LPM Wars
This Media Post article nails it. As I pointed out back on June 23 in "Setting the Record Straight", there are two competing agendas between Univision and the National Hispanic Media Coalition (ringleaders of Don't Count Us Out) in their battles against Nielsen Media Research. In examining the Tomas Rivera report, the article exploits the division: Univision wants to ensure the LPM sample safeguards their vaunted ad revenues for Spanish-speaking audiences, while NHMC, on the other hand, hopes to ensure greater representation of Latinos on the mainstream airwaves. Afterall, if NHMC can demonstrate that programs like the George Lopez Show have a sizable audience, it means more work for Latinos in the industry. The key grafs:
- The problem, said the authors, was that the coalition, an integral part of the News Corp.-backed anti-Nielsen group Don't Count Us Out, is more interested in advancing the agenda of "Latino media elites" among English-language media outlets, than it is in getting an accurate representation of Latinos in the overall media community, including both Spanish- and English-language media.
That conclusion reveals how two different Latino-based Nielsen opponents - the coalition and Univision - are actually operating at cross-purposes. Univision is suing Nielsen on the grounds that its local people meter samples do not accurately represent Spanish-speaking Latinos and that they over-represent English-speaking Latinos.
Now what about Asian Americans you ask? Isn't this a group that Nielsen has openly admitted to undercounting?
- Interestingly, while there has been tremendous opposition to the roll out of local people meters in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago from Latino and African American pressure groups, there has been nary a voice of protest regarding its introduction in San Francisco, a market with a significant Asian American population. That's interesting, because Nielsen's own assessment of a Media Rating Council audit of the local people meter system in New York concluded that the only ethnic group that was actually under-represented was Asian Americans.
Well let's see, why would that be? You think the fact that there are no Asian American themed shows on network television (much less any talent) and that Asian-language TV stations don't use Nielsen data has something to do with it?
But let's maintain some perspective here -- the writer gives far too much credence to the "tremendous opposition" being raised by African American and Latino groups. A great deal of the pressure groups organized against Nielsen are fronts. And thin ones at that. Most legit community organizations are probably standing on the sidelines wondering what all the fuss is about, while prominent community leaders (i.e. Jesse Jackson) have balked at even getting involved.