The question now is whether Nielsen can perform adequate sample recruitment and management across the board," said a long-time Nielsen client, adding that a major issue will be how Nielsen "weights" its TV ratings sample to adjust for the under-representation of certain types of viewers--including English- and Spanish-speaking Hispanic households.
As a result of the move, Nielsen will begin reporting various Hispanic and Spanish-language preference market breaks in its total sample, allowing all TV viewing sources to be analyzed on the basis of their Hispanic and Spanish-language audience composition, not just so-called Hispanic networks.
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Analysis of the data will still be somewhat subjective, Nielsen said, noting that interpretation of language preferences may require some assumptions.
"Language is a personal characteristic," Nielsen said in a communication to clients late last week. "Reporting language only at the household level can be confusing." As a result, Nielsen said that effective with the 2007-08 TV season, it would begin reporting data based on the language spoken by individuals within a household, and not simply the language preferred by the head of the household.