• by June 7, 2004

MRC TO MADISON AVENUE: WE WANT TO COUNT YOU IN - When the Media Rating Council voted several weeks ago to withhold accreditation to Nielsen Media Research's local people meter service in New York, we were a little surprised. We knew there were some thorny issues with the sample, but we also knew that no sample is perfect and that, according to some people we respect, the new LPM sample wasn't any worse than the current meter-diary sample operating in the Big Apple. More importantly, we knew from listening to these respected sources that people meters were a vastly superior method of measuring audiences in local TV markets than the diary-based systems are. So, why were we surprised? Apparently, we were listening to the wrong people, the ones who actually invest advertising budgets in local TV markets based on the outcome of those local TV ratings reports: ad agency research chiefs.

So why were they the wrong people to listen to? Well, because Madison Avenue's vote apparently doesn't count as much as those of the big media concerns that may have steered the outcome of the MRC's accreditation vote. Why? Because agency representation has fallen to an all-time low, and along with it, the MRC voting rights of the ad industry. In theory, the MRC strives to have enough representation to have voting power split equally three ways, with a third going each to the ad industry, the broadcast industry and the cable industry.

But due to the consolidation of the ad agency business, the voting influence of Madison Avenue has dipped well below that, giving the TV industry more influence than ever before in the outcome of important TV ratings matters like accreditation. Complicating this matter further, is the fact that some big media companies have multiple votes. Univision, for example, gets five. And one like Viacom, which has many cable network, broadcast network and TV station divisions, gets even more.

"The real issue is that the agency community is shrinking," frets George Ivie, executive director of the MRC. He says that currently, the broadcast and cable votes are about equally represented, but that Madison Avenue's participation has dropped below what it should be. While the margin has not yet become a wide gap -- Ivie says the agency business is down "about four or five votes" - it could be enough to swing important decisions like an accreditation vote.

Ivie says the MRC is exploring steps to rectify the imbalance, including a possible change to the voting rules in the MRC's bylaws, but that nothing has been decided. Meanwhile, he says the group has stepped up efforts to get the ad industry more involved, and not just agencies. A while back the MRC signed Procter & Gamble up as its first-ever voting advertiser member, and Ivie says the group is close to announcing another big marketer very soon.

But the big irony behind Madison Avenue's poor representation in the MRC comes at a time when the group is weighing whether to censure a broadcaster - News Corp. - for backing a campaign called Don't Count Us Out, whose members claim Nielsen isn't adequately representing the "votes" of minority TV viewers.

While it will be interesting to see how that MRC vote goes, in another way, Madison Avenue has the ability to cast the ultimate vote. If it doesn't like the outcome of an MRC decision, whether it is accreditation for a TV ratings service, or the repudiation of a rogue member, it can always vote with its pocketbooks.