• by Joe Mandese , October 10, 2006

Signaling an even deeper commitment to the Internet, VNU, the parent of Nielsen Media Research, Monday announced plans to acquire the 39.5 percent stake in online audience measurement service NetRatings that it does not already own. The move, which was not unexpected, comes as Nielsen has stepped up efforts to integrate and "fuse" its TV ratings systems with NetRatings online audience estimates to create a new seamless product that would enable advertisers and agencies to look at video programming and advertising that is carried across the two media platforms.

In fact, Nielsen CEO Susan Whiting Monday also began informing Nielsen clients that the two companies already have created a so-called "fusion" database that seamlessly matches people in the TV ratings sample with comparable people in the online sample, and said the two companies have begun working on a single, integrated sample that would simultaneously measure usage of TV and online.

Meanwhile, Whiting said some clients have already begun working with the companies to implement an Internet streaming measurement system.

"Our Nielsen Media Research and Nielsen//NetRatings teams have been meeting to address the engineering, statistical and methodological challenges of creating a single sample," she said in a notice updating clients on Nielsen's so-called "A2/M2" initiative, which stands for measuring audiences anywhere and anytime video content is viewed. "Looking ahead, in November we are slated to begin installing a software Internet meter on the computers of certain households that are not in our currency samples."

Whiting said the new sample is expected to be completed by January and that the companies would conduct a six-month test to "gauge household acceptance of the Internet meter and confirm panel compliance is maintained, among existing People Meter homes." A second phase that would actually recruit new sample homes is expected to begin in 2007.

In the meantime, Whiting said Nielsen clients could rely on the new fused Nielsen and NetRatings sample, which she termed a "groundbreaking resource" combining Nielsen's 10,000-plus TV household sample with more than 30,000 respondents in Nielsen//NetRatings' NetView sample.

"The fusion process matches panelists based on common demographics, including age, sex, household income, household education and region of country, to link the two databases, thereby providing a comprehensive picture of consumers' television and online activities," Whiting said in the notice.

This is not the first time Nielsen has offered a fused database product to the industry. Although considered controversial by some media research purists, fused databases have been growing in popularity in the U.S. and in overseas markets, because researchers have been having a difficult time building significant samples around research services that ask the respondents to do many tasks.

Over the last couple of years, Nielsen has fused its TV ratings database with Kantar Media Research's MARS survey on pharmaceutical product and media usage, and has said it has plans for other fused products.

Meanwhile, parent VNU's decisions to acquire NetRatings outright seems a fait accompli. VNU already has a controlling 60.5 percent of NetRatings' common stock and Monday said it plans to offer $16 per share, a 10 percent premium over its Oct. 6 closing price, to acquire the remaining shares.