• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 14, 2006

At a time when Nielsen seems especially keen on developing new clients and additional revenue streams, there's one piece of new business the TV ratings giant hasn't been all that eager to follow up on: Spunky new interactive TV network ReacTV. In the three weeks since ReacTV founder Frank Maggio announced his attention to become a Nielsen ratings client during a keynote at the Advertising Research Foundation's Audience Measurement Symposium in New York on June 21, Nielsen executives had declined to return calls from ReacTV executives.

Maggio, of course, is the Florida real estate tycoon who also owns erinMedia, a TV ratings start-up that has a federal antitrust suit pending against Nielsen. ReacTV had been part of the original suit, which claims Nielsen's business practices are monopolistic and preclude competition from entering the TV ratings marketplace, but on an appeal from Nielsen, a federal judge ruled ReacTV had no basis for the claim. The erinMedia suit, however, is currently in the process of discovery and could well go to trial.

"He's in the middle of an antitrust suit with them and he can't get anyone at Nielsen to return his calls," Maggio Media Research insider said of Maggio's attempts to purchase Nielsen ratings. Of course, it could be that Nielsen executives have simply been too busy to return the calls. Or it could be that when Maggio announced his intentions to buy Nielsen ratings, he made it clear that he wanted to use them to compare them with the data erinMedia would be generating directly from the digital set-top boxes in cable systems carrying ReacTV.

"It's an interesting dilemma for Nielsen, because if we get access to their data, we'll know what the differences are," said the Maggio insider.

"Because this is the subject of a lawsuit we cannot comment on it," Nielsen spokesman Jack Loftus said after being contacted by MediaDailyNews. "Because we are before a judge right now, we don't have any comment."

Loftus confirmed that lawyers for Nielsen and erinMedia are still in "discovery," meaning they are sharing information to help prepare their cases. And although, ReacTV is no longer a party to that suit, Loftus said, "As far as we're concerned, it's all connected."

Late Thursday, after MDN contacted Nielsen for a comment, the Maggio insider said the company got a call back from Nielsen, but declined to disclose details of the conversation.