• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, August 14, 2006

With the debate surrounding Nielsen's new commercial minute ratings heating up, a group of Nielsen clients has scheduled Sept. 21 for a summit to try and develop an industry consensus for how the new ratings should be defined and processed. The meeting, which is being organized by Mediaedge:cia Chief Investment Officer Rino Scanzoni and NBC President of Research and Media Development Alan Wurtzel, will take place at NBC's headquarters in Rockefeller Center and will come three days after the official start of the 2006-07 season, when the new ratings will begin to be disseminated by Nielsen.

"As you are undoubtedly aware, there are many significant research issues surrounding these metrics and we thought it would be beneficial for us to attempt to identify the significant issues and hopefully work toward a consensus on the details which would ultimately be of benefit to the entire industry," NBC's Wurtzel outlined in the invitation, which was sent to a small, but influential cross section of industry leaders including media agency chiefs such as Starcom's John Muszynski, PHD's Steve Grubbs, MPG's Charlie Rutman and Mediavest's Donna Speciale, as well as top agency and network research executives.

"We've invited Nielsen to attend to brief the group on their plans and to answer questions regarding these issues," Wurtzel noted, asking those who plan to attend to send a list of issues and questions in advance of the meeting.

The summit comes as a number of important stakeholders have raised concerns about the way Nielsen plans to process and distribute the new average commercial minute ratings. Ad agencies and cable network executives have been chief among critics of the plan, which began when the major broadcast networks demonstrated a rare rapid, solidarity and commissioned Nielsen to move ahead with the new ratings this fall.

Among the chief concerns raised by both the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau and the American Association of Advertising Agencies is that the new ratings rely on Nielsen's Monitor-Plus commercial tracking system for data on commercial minutes, and the fact that the data is not always representative or accurate, and that it has not been accredited by the industry's ratings authority, the Media Rating Council.

Additionally, in a letter sent late last week to Nielsen CEO Susan Whiting outlining Madison Avenue's position, the AAAA called on Nielsen to begin removing ratings attributed to VCRs from the new commercial ratings (MediaDailyNews Aug. 11). The VCR data is likely to be a hot discussion point between media buyers and sellers.

On Friday, a Nielsen spokesman said the research company was working on a response to the AAAA request.