Azteca America Included In Nielsen Ratings

Azteca America joins Univision and Telemundo as a Spanish-language broadcaster included in Nielsen's general-market ratings this season. The move allows media buyers to gauge the performance of all three on a category basis versus the major general-market networks. The move is not a surprise, since the niche Hispanic ratings service which Azteca had previously used becomes obsolete next year.

Azteca America's performance will now be tracked as part of the National Television Index, the service used by ABC, NBC and others. Univision and Telemundo have already joined NTI. All three did so in advance of Nielsen's plans to abolish the National Hispanic Television Index in September 2007.

NHTI will continue to track Azteca until next September. The network is available in 52 markets, from Amarillo, Texas, to Yakima, Washington, and most major DMAs.

"Being reported within both NTI and NHTI gives us the best of both worlds," says Azteca America Chairman Luis J. Echarte. "The Hispanic consumer is growing more sophisticated and desirable. Through this agreement with Nielsen, we will now be able to demonstrate clearly the power of our audience in comparison not only to our Spanish-language competitors but the broader U.S. marketplace as well."

advertisement

advertisement

Spanish-language media is expected to continue showing impressive growth. TNS Media Intelligence projects 12.9 percent growth for the sector this year, more than any other category except the 13 percent forecast for the Internet.

Next story loading loading..