• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 2, 2009

Rebuffed in its attempts to persuade Nielsen to overturn its decision to do away with "live" local TV ratings, one of Madison Avenue's biggest buyers of local TV advertising time is taking its appeal directly to local TV broadcasters. In emails sent Tuesday to "key" station executives, John Muszynski, chief investment officer of Publicis' SMGX unit, invited them to participate in a meeting to "work towards a mutual agreement regarding local television audience measurement."

"While we have voiced our concerns directly to Nielsen, we feel it would be more productive for us to collaborate together to establish a model, based on research facts, that will satisfy all of our needs," Muszynski says in the email, a copy of which was obtained by MediaDailyNews. "Given that we have numerous deals in place for 2010 based on Live-only data, we owe it to our clients to quickly develop an action plan."

The appeal follows an announcement by Nielsen on Nov. 9th that it would do away with live audience estimates effective January 2010, the basis of TV advertising deals for more than half a century, and would only provide ratings with time-shifted viewing factored in.

While that decision was popular among local broadcasters who have lost significant advertising revenues during the advertising recession, and seen as a way for them to get additional value from advertisers from time-shifted viewing that had not previously been accounted for, it has created a rift on Madison Avenue. Major agencies such as Publicis Groupe's, and WPP's GroupM have drawn a line, with the latter actually threatening legal action to overturn Nielsen's decision, and both the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers have issued strongly worded position statements condemning Nielsen's decision.

Nielsen, meanwhile, has maintained that it made the decision to scrap live audience estimates only after a thorough survey of its clients, and that it believes the move represents the most accurate currency for the future of the local TV advertising marketplace, even though agency executives estimate that it will mask substantial amounts of commercial-skipping that will occur via time-shifted viewing. SMGX's Muszynski has estimated that initially, the decision would inflate the value of TV advertising time by as much as 4% due to lost commercial exposure, but that over time, the number could become much higher, as more local TV viewers begin watching station programming via time-shifted means such as DVRs.

In the letter he sent to local station executives Tuesday, Muszynski implied that Nielsen's decision ultimately would undermine the relative value of local TV advertising in the eyes of big advertisers and agencies, and would actually cost stations in the long run as agencies seek to lower local TV advertising rates, or shift budgets to media that have more accountable measures of advertising exposure.

"Now, more than ever, this marketplace demands enhanced accountability," Muszynski wrote. "It is our desire to continue to recommend local television as a viable, powerful and accountable local advertising vehicle. But we need your continued support to make that happen."

Details about the meeting, including when and where it would take place were not provided in Monday's email, and an SMGX spokesperson was not available for comment, but Muszynski wrote they would be announced in the "coming days.

"We are open to your thoughts and ideas on how we can collectively collaborate to a successful solution," he said.