July 12, 2004
A Damaged Nielsen Means ...?
Not much new stuff about the pending Senate hearings scheduled for this Thursday on Nielsen's People Meters. However, there's this article in yesterday's AP that offers a possible hint into Fox News Corp's motivations:
- Otherwise, despite those years of grumbling, other networks have conspicuously stayed away from News Corp.'s campaign. Some executives privately believe a tradition of working out problems internally between Nielsen and the networks is best. They worry about a damaged Nielsen because there's no immediate alternative.
"I think that News Corp.'s end game is to so thoroughly discredit Nielsen that the government will allow them to come up with a ratings system that the industry can control, and that system will be designed to give them higher ratings," Loftus said.
The people behind the campaign said they ultimately want to make sure that Nielsen is more responsive and accurate.
"We think, at the end of the day, people will have greater confidence and faith in a ratings service that has been subject to scrutiny and held accountable for its accuracy," said Tom Herwitz, president of Fox station operations.
How this endgame will playout is beyond me, but Fox has rolled the dice on this one to totally discredit Nielsen. But there's no guarantee they'll be able to garner a government ruling to mandate minimal TV rating measurement standards, and may in fact be unintentionally pushing a different outcome from the debate: busting Nielsen as a monopoly. We'll see.
Showdown Thursday!