Opponents Shift Focus To People Meter's Watchdog, Call On Congress

The political opposition mounting against Nielsen's local people meter ratings services has taken an ironic twist, shifting from Nielsen itself to the Media Rating Council, the third-party industry council that audits and gives accreditation to media ratings services like Nielsen's. The development is ironic because pressure groups have begun lobbying Congress to look into the role of the MRC, an organization that was originally created by Congress following its hearings on the TV game show scandals of the 1950s.

The political maneuvering also comes with the MRC's television committee poised to convene later this month to review final results of the council's ongoing audit of the New York local people meter system, and to decide whether it should be accredited or not. MRC accreditation would be critically important to advertisers and agencies who base more than $1 billion in TV advertising buys in the New York market each year on the MRC's stamp of approval. Should the MRC grant Nielsen's local people meter service accreditation in the market, it would essentially end any ad industry concerns surrounding the service.

advertisement

advertisement

Nielsen originally planned to launch the local people meter service in New York in April before it received MRC accreditation, but delayed it after complaints from a variety of pressure groups--chiefly Don't Count Us Out--raised concerns among federal lawmakers and local government officials.

George Ivie, executive director of the MRC, said the council had intentionally slowed down the auditing process for Nielsen's local people meter services in Los Angeles and Chicago, which are set to launch in July and August, respectively--but which also are facing new media and political campaigns from opponents, chiefly leaders of civil rights organizations representing Hispanic and African Americans, who claim that people meters do not accurately measure viewing of people of color.

The main reasons for the delay of those audits, he said, were to focus on the New York audit, and because the audits are most accurate if they are conducted just prior to the launch of a ratings service.

Ivie declined to comment on prospects for a Congressional hearing concerning the role of the MRC, but said: "We're looking to be very cooperative about it." He noted that the MRC was actually set up by the Justice Department following the game show hearings, when Congress gave the TV industry the choice of either being self-regulated or being regulated by the government.

Meanwhile, Nielsen has stepped up its own information campaign to counter the lobbying and media spin coming from the anti-people meter groups. On Tuesday, it released an 18 page report to its clients defending the accuracy of its people meter ratings, and releasing data indicating that viewing patterns are markedly different for all types of viewers than what the set-meter/diary system it is looking to replace would suggest.

The report concludes that the New York people meter has a 48 percent larger sample size and higher participation rates, and that it more accurately matches the ethnic and racial composition of the New York market than the current system. Moreover, the research paper asserts that there "is no difference between old and new systems in the amount of overall viewing by African American and Latino audiences;" and that people of color are viewing a more diverse array of cable networks.

Next story loading loading..