• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 20, 2005

Already under intense scrutiny for its new local people meter services, Nielsen Media Research will now undergo detailed monitoring for the rest of its local TV market ratings services. The Media Rating Council, the media industry's ratings watchdog, Tuesday said it has implemented a "detailed performance monitoring procedure" for all of Nielsen's local diary and meter-diary services.

The MRC said it implemented the monitoring following a review of a 2004 audit of the local market ratings services, which revealed a number of glitches. Nielsen has proposed a set of initiatives to improve the performance of its local ratings services and the MRC said its new procedures are designed to ascertain that Nielsen is actually implementing them.

Those initiatives include methodology changes on most phases of Nielsen's production process, including sample design, in-tab performance, household coaching and interactions, diary and meter improvements, data editing and data ascription.

The MRC said Nielsen's 205 local diary and meter-diary market reports would retain the MRC's accreditation "checkmarks" during the monitoring period, which will last throughout 2005.

The procedures do not affect Nielsen's local people meter services, which fall under separate audits and accreditation. To date, Nielsen has rolled out local people meters in the five largest TV markets.