• by Joe Mandese , May 13, 2004

The immense political pressure being mounted against Nielsen's local people meter service in New York just got even more immense Thursday when the House Energy and Commerce Committee confirmed plans to ask the General Accounting Office to conduct a study of the accuracy of the TV ratings system. In a letter scheduled to be sent within the next week, the committee plans to ask the GAO, Congress's investigative arm, to conduct a simultaneous test of Nielsen's new people meter system and its current set-meter/diary system to make comparisons and evaluate the efficacy of the people meters.

"We are requesting that Nielsen use both the diaries and LPMs during this study," said John Tripp, a spokesman for the Congressional committee. "We don't intend for there to be any delay in the rollout. We just want them to use both at the same time. The whole idea is to take the uncertainty out of the process."

A Nielsen spokesman said the ratings company had not yet been contacted by the GAO or members of Congress and had no comment. Ironically, Nielsen has already conducted simultaneous tests of its local people meters--in Boston for more than a year, and in New York for nearly a year.

The timing of the GAO's audit is also striking, because it would coincide with an ongoing audit of the service by the Media Rating Council (MRC), an independent industry authority that originally was created by Congress to audit and accredit media ratings services like Nielsen's. The MRC's television committee is scheduled to meet later this month to review the findings of the New York people meter audit and to decide on its accreditation. Meanwhile, there is talk on the hill of a separate review of the MRC itself.

The moves follow an aggressive PR, advertising, and lobbying effort by local people meter opponents including News Corp. and an advocacy group called Don't Count Us Out, which claim that the local people meters do not accurately represent or measure people of color.

Nielsen this week released a study, which it claims provides proof that the people meters are both more accurate than the current ratings system and show that there have been marked changes in the way people of color watch TV.

Madison Avenue media research executives have been relatively quiet on the whole issue, given its political overtones, but have consistently been supportive of people meters as a superior method of measuring TV audience estimates. The American Association of Advertising Agencies is expected to issue a statement shortly attesting to that fact.