July 20, 2004
The Medium is the Measure
from dcuo
One of the possible motivations driving Nielsen to move so quickly in upgrading its ancient diary format to its Local People Meter system (LPM) is the increasing migration of viewers from broadcast television to cable. In the fragmented, specialized cable universe, it's far more difficult to gauge viewership based on respondent recollection and memory than an automated system that tracks it all for you.
Thus, there's always been a measure of discontent among cable television providers about Nielsen Media Research's inability to generate sufficient, reliable numbers for cable networks and programs. However, Nielsen's LPMs *are* a substantial improvement at tracking spot cable viewership, and early results reinforce that: cable ratings have indeed gone up, esp. in households of color.
While this certainly pleases some cable networks -- i.e. BET -- it has conversely upset giant broadcasters like News Corp. They aren't about to relinquish a greater share of $60 billion in advertising revenues to cable without putting up a fight, and TMB has been closely documenting the discord.
Nevertheless, it was revealed yesterday in this Advertising Age piece that several large cable providers -- Comcast and Cox Communications -- have been pursuing the possibility of establishing their own ratings measurement alternative to Nielsen's product, possibly out of frustration with the length of time it's taken for Nielsen to upgrade their system into the 21st century.
While LPMs are certainly a considerable improvement, there's still uncertainty over how well it tracks other cable features that providers want to know -- i.e., video-on-demand, TiVo, etc. Sure, it's only taken Nielsen 50 years to transition from pencil and paper to a digital metering device -- how long will it take to get the other stuff up?
UPDATE: In related news, Nielsen has hired multicultural advertising/PR firm, Burrell Communications, to counter Fox News Corp negative publicity in the continuing Local People Meter battle. Excerpt:
- The agency said its goal is to "correct erroneous and misleading information circulating, according to news reports, as part of a multi-million campaign financed by News Corp." News Corp., a major opponent of Nielsen's local people meter system, has publicly acknowledged backing the efforts of Don't Count Us Out, an anti Nielsen advocacy group that is estimated to have spent more than $5 million on advertising, PR and lobbying efforts to stop Nielsen's roll out of the meters. News Corp. and DCUO maintain that the meters and their audience samples do not accurately measure TV viewing, particularly among African American and Latino households. Nielsen and Burrell did not disclose the advertising budget for the campaign, nor how long it would run.