• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 7, 2010

Manish Bhatia, one of the pioneers of online audience measurement, and the head of Nielsen Co.'s digital media initiatives, is out as part of a reorganization of the media and marketing research giant.

Bhatia could not be reached for comment, but Nielsen insiders say he had been growing frustrated with the relatively slow pace of some digital media audience measurement initiatives - particularly the TV industry's digital set-top data marketplace - and left to pursue something entrepreneurial in the online industry.

"I think he saw it slower to develop than he thought it might," a top Nielsen executive said. "Several colleagues from his online days approached him, and he said he'd like to explore those options."

Bhatia was named president of advanced digital services at Nielsen Co. in January 2009, taking charge of a wide range of digital measurement initiatives, including the development of interactive and addressable TV audience measurement systems. Prior to that, Bhatia had been president of global operations for Nielsen Online, and was a key executive in NetRatings, a precursor company Nielsen acquired in the late 1990s that became the basis of its online measurement division.

In recent years, Nielsen has begun integrating its media measurement initiatives around a multiple screens - TV, online, mobile, and digital out-of-home - approach, and it made sense for one of its online leaders to helm the development of its advanced digital TV measurement systems. Some of his frustration with the slow pace of the digital TV measurement marketplace could be seen in an August 2009 column, "The Promise and Perils of Set Top Data," which Bhatia posted on the NielsenWire. In it, he ticks off the many technical and marketplace obstacles to the development of such a system.

In the reorganization that Nielsen is expected to announce later today, it will outline a new structure for driving digital TV set-top data and integrating it into a wide array of measurement systems, including marketing databases such as its consumer purchasing panel venture with Catalina Marketing. The focus of the new organization will be to meld the best of the so-called "census" quality of set-top data with Nielsen's core panel-based measurement systems.

Nielsen is currently testing data provided by cable operator Charter Communications in three markets - St. Louis, Greenville/Spartanburg, and Reno - to determine how the data can be used to augment or complement its existing TV measurement methods (people meters, set-meter/diaries, and diary-only), before taking any next steps.

As part of the reorganization, Nielsen will outline a new structure that effectively elevates the role of digital set-top data across its entire organization, with three key executives taking the lead: Matt O'Grady, who currently leads cross-media platform, TV, online and mobile audience measurement; Cheryl Idell, who oversees local TV media measurement product development; and Pat Dineen, a new Nielsen recruit who will manage Nielsen's set-top data relationships with cable, telco and satellite TV operators.