• by Paul Gough , February 20, 2003

A seven-year deal between NBC and Nielsen Media Research announced Thursday include help to almost double Nielsen’s National People Meter sample.

NBC will support the largest expansion of the sample, which Nielsen Media Research said will grow from 5,000 households to nearly 10,000 households when it’s done. While the National People Meter is supported by all Nielsen clients on the national level, this will be the first time that Nielsen has gotten a high-profile supporter for the expansion.

An expansion would help Nielsen deliver more granular data in a media landscape that is expanding and fragmenting. Nielsen tracks eight broadcast networks, 60 cable channels and 100-plus syndicators. The TV ratings system will be able to look not only at women 18-49 but also, for instance, women 18-24.

The seven-year deal with Nielsen covers NBC’s television properties, including NBC TV, Bravo, CNBC, MSNBC, Telemundo, the 14 network O&Os and 13 Telemundo-owned stations. It’s reported to be worth somewhere in the hundreds of millions of dollars, although an exact figure wasn’t available. Nielsen said it’s the largest and most comprehensive agreement of its kind, bigger than the seven-year deal reached with Time Warner four years ago.

Alan Wurtzel, president of research/media development at NBC, said the deal’s comprehensive nature made it attractive to the company. Wurtzel said the Nielsen deal becomes very important in a world where companies like NBC are having a lot of cross-platforming.

“We got favorable pricing and the ability to understand what the cost is going to be so there would be no surprises going out … It makes us a lot smarter. That was a very, very important element from the research perspective,” he said.

Wurtzel said NBC realized that Nielsen had developed the best and most accurate ratings system and that, in the next seven years, it wasn’t going to be supplanted by a competitor company or methodology.

“It seemed to be the right way to go,” Wurtzel said of the deal.

Another attractive aspect of the deal was the fact that for the first time on the national level, Nielsen agreed to performance guarantees on elements like reach and coop rates. Wurtzel said it will help make sure the system stays atop of the changes in the media landscape.

A new metering system, which uses digital encoding to track viewership, will be implemented by NBC when it’s introduced in 2004. The Active/Passive Meter uses embedded electronic codes to identify programs, stations and networks. Nielsen said the two companies will work closely to bring the new digital distribution system online.

A Nielsen spokesman said other deals were possible but nothing had been announced.