Commentary

Nielsen's STB RFP, Mel Gibson's 'Braveheart' & Machiavelli's 'Prince'

Nielsen Media Research
Last week, Nielsen Media Research, as underwriter of the Council for Research Excellence (38 clients of NMR plus two representatives of Nielsen), initiated an RFP (request for proposals): "The Set Top Box and Audience Research: The State of the Art."
The 'excerpted' purpose:

 "With the ability to time shift video consumption, come the demands for greater accountability and increased data granularity within the commercial Broadcast/Cable industry. For these reasons, Set-Top Box (STB) data are increasingly being heralded as the future of television audience measurement. The goal of the committee is to conduct a comprehensive examination of how various vendors' STBs capture and report tuning, from which will emerge learning as to the viability of using STB data as a measure of video tuning behavior. Specially, the committee seeks proposals to review current methods and metrics involving data collected by way of TV set top boxes. This initial study should serve the purposes to:
  •     identify and describe current vendor practices of collecting, processing and reporting data from set top boxes
  •     educate the Nielsen client community and the broader media research industries about the major offerings
  •     identify important methodological issues regarding the collection and application of audience data from set top boxes
  •     map out key issues for the industry's ongoing review, tracking and analysis, such that STBs will be a dynamic measurement tool."

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     Mel Gibson's "Braveheart"
    Summary:

    "Braveheart" is a 1995 historical action drama movie, which garnered five Academy Awards, produced and directed by Mel Gibson, who also starred in the title role. Gibson portrays a legendary Scot, William Wallace, who gained recognition when he came to the forefront of the First War of Scottish Independence by opposing Edward I of England -- known to his friends by the sobriquet Longshanks, because he had oppressively occupied much of Scotland by 1280 AD. An early scene in the movie flashbacks to when the young William Wallace was left at home by his father and much older brother to attend a powwow of the leading Scottish clansmen that was initiated by Longshanks, and purported to resolve their conflicts.

    Machiavelli's "The Prince" and the Discourses
    Chapter VIII of exiled Florentine Niccolo Machiavelli's 15th-century discourse ("The Prince"), entitled "Of Those Who Have Attained the Position of Prince by Villainy"
    Excerpt:

    "Oliverotto invited Giovanni Fogliani and all the principal men of Fermo to a grand banquet. After the dinner and the entertainments usual at such feasts, Oliverotto artfully introduced certain important matters of discussion, speaking of the greatness of Pope Alexander and of his son Cesare, and of their enterprises. To which discourses Giovanni and others having replied, he all at once rose, saying that these matters should be spoken of in a more private place, and withdrew into a room where Giovanni and the other citizens followed him."

    Mel Gibson's "Braveheart"
    Still in flashback mode:

    After waiting impatiently for his father and much older brother to return, the much younger William Wallace sneaks away from his mother and abode, and sojourns to the meeting house in which the peace negotiation was to take place. As he approaches, there is an eerie stillness hovering about the place. The wooden front door slightly ajar. His father, brother and the other Scottish clansmen hanging by the necks from the rafters.

    Machiavelli's "The Prince" and the Discourses
    Chapter VIII of exiled Florentine Niccolo Machiavelli's 15th century discourse ("The Prince") entitled "Of Those Who Have Attained the Position of Prince by Villainy"
    Still in excerpted mode:

    "Oliverotto invited Giovanni Fogliani and all the principal men of Fermo to a grand banquet. After the dinner and the entertainments usual at such feasts, Oliverotto artfully introduced certain important matters of discussion, speaking of the greatness of Pope Alexander and of his son Cesare, and of their enterprises. To which discourses Giovanni and others having replied, he all at once rose, saying that these matters should be spoken of in a more private place, and withdrew into a room where Giovanni and the other citizens followed him. They were no sooner seated than soldiers rushed out of hiding places and killed Giovanni and all of the others. After which massacre Oliverotto mounted his horse, rode through the town and besieged the chief magistrate in his palace, so that through fear they were obliged to obey him and form a government, of which he made himself prince. And all those being dead who, if discontented, could injure him, he fortified himself with new orders, civil and military, in such a way that within the year that he held the principality he was not only safe himself in the city of Fermo, but had become formidable to all his neighbors."

    Nielsen Media Research
    "The Set Top Box and Audience Research: The State of the Art"
    The excerpted purpose extended: last qualifier, under "Other terms (Point 8):

    "At the conclusion of the project, all materials developed by the project team will become the exclusive property of The Nielsen Company."

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