• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 11, 2007

Some clients of competitive ad tracking firm TNS Media Intelligence are concerned that Nielsen may be restricting access to its TV ratings data in a way that makes it difficult for them to analyze their competitors' TV advertising deals. Nielsen says it has offered to license the data to TNS MI, but that a deal has not been settled. But the influential media research committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies is expected to discuss the holdup this week, says Susan Nathan, a member of the committee and senior vice president-director of media knowledge at Universal McCann.

The dispute comes as a Federal Trade Commission consent decree requiring Nielsen to license its TV ratings data to TNS MI has expired, and as Nielsen faces a federal antitrust suit scheduled for trial early next year.

The expired consent decree, which was issued following Nielsen's acquisition by VNU in 1999, required that Nielsen agree to license its TV ratings data to TNS MI for a period of no less than five years, because Nielsen's Monitor-Plus unit competes directly with TNS MI.

Universal's Nathan says the holdup doesn't currently have anything to do with the possibility that TNS MI might eventually offer commercial minute ratings data combining Nielsen's TV ratings with TNS MI's commercial tracking data, but that Nielsen's reticence also raises concerns about that prospect.

Media ratings watchdog the Media Rating Council currently is conducting audits of both Nielsen's Monitor-Plus system and TNS MI's commercial tracking system to see if they can be accredited for potential use as media ratings currency. TNS MI has no immediate plans to begin integrating its commercial tracking data with Nielsen's ratings, but a number of clients would like the option of using that data instead of Nielsen's Monitor-Plus data.

Executives who are familiar with the MRC audits, meanwhile, say they are far more complicated than had originally been expected--and that it is now unlikely that Nielsen's Monitor-Plus service will receive accreditation by the start of the new TV season, meaning that any upfront advertising deals negotiated for next season based on Nielsen's new average commercial minute ratings will be unaccredited.

As for the integration of Nielsen's ratings with TNS MI's competitive ad tracking reports, Universal's Nathan says it is important, because most agencies and advertisers need to understand the level of "gross rating points" their rivals are getting for their advertising buys.

Nielsen executives and TNS MI executives could not say when an agreement might be struck giving TNS MI access to the ratings data.

"We've been having negotiations with Nielsen trying to work out a licensing arrangement that would give us access to that data on behalf of our customers. It's not happening as fast as some of our clients would like, and it's not happening as fast as we would like," says Jon Swallen, senior vice president-research at TNS MI.

While the federal antitrust suit brought against Nielsen by erinMedia founder Frank Maggio does not explicitly address access to Nielsen's TV ratings data, Maggio also has complained that Nielsen refused to sell its TV ratings data to a separate Maggio company, ReacTV, because it was connected to a rival TV ratings business.