• by May 20, 2004

JOINING THE BUCKET BRIGADE? OR, JUST THROWING MORE FUEL ON THE FIRE? - All this time we thought the "problem" with local people meters was actually the meters, but apparently it has to do with buckets. At least that's what Ray Rodriguez, president-COO of Univision Communications, the Spanish-language TV juggernaut, believes. Given Univision's stake with Latino TV viewers, you'd think the company would have taken center stage on the whole local people meter debate, but Univision has been oddly quiet, sitting it out on the sidelines as Nielsen dukes it out with Latino and African American civil rights groups and Fox, which have claimed the meters do not accurately measure people of color, including Latinos.

"The people meter is great technology. It's probably the best out there," acknowledged Rodriguez when the Riff asked him about Univision's silence on the matter. However, he said Univision was still concerned about the "buckets." By buckets, Rodriguez means, the groups of individuals that comprise the local people meter samples. "You have to get the buckets right. The buckets right now are under-counted," he said, noting that Nielsen itself acknowledged some problems in Los Angeles and Chicago that led the ratings company to delay the rollout of local people meters in those markets until it could plug any holes that might be leaking in their buckets.

But it's understandable why Univision hasn't taken a more visible position on the local people meter debate, given the politically charged emotions surrounding the discussion and the fact that the anti-LPM forces are so tenacious. Just consider how the Don't Count Us Out (DCUO) crowd reacted to a major African American network's endorsement of the LPMs.

"It is a grave disappointment that a symbol of media diversity such as BET has chosen to ignore the calls of this broad coalition," said a statement issued to the Riff by a DCUO operative. Grave? Wow, these guys don't kid around.

The statement then goes on to rebuke BET's decision, asserting it was motivated not because of BET's commitment to its African American audience, but the corporate position of its parent Viacom, which has made a long-term commitment to Nielsen in support of the LPMs.

"We hope BET, as an important voice in the African American community, will do the responsible thing and take another look at the data and reconsider their ill-advised position." According to BET's statement, that's exactly what it did, and it's why it came out in favor of LPMs.

SPEAKING OF SPEAKING SPANISH - We always wondered whether Univision's dynamic sales duo could really habla Epsanol. With their improbable last names we always thought it was more likely that Univision Sales Co- Presidents Tom McGarrity and Dennis McCauley were more apt to speak with brogues than to be trilling their Rs. Turns out, we were at least half right. During a hilarious skit featuring the ad sales execs at Univision's upfront presentation, they were depicted as the lusty protagonists of a Spanish novella. McCauley was seen repeatedly looking off camera to read his Spanish lines from some prompter or cue card. McGarrity, on the other hand, delivered his lines fluently and convincingly enough to earn a legitimate acting role in a real novella.

HERE'S A FLIP TIP - The Riff has always loved flip books, so naturally we flipped when we received the invitation to attend a swanky New York event hosted by Comcast Spotlight. And it wasn't just because the invite came in the form of a flip book, but because it promised to let us "see the future of television." That's always been something we've wanted to see. The only problem is that we don't know when we will see it. The invitation gives the time and location (the Four Seasons Restaurant), but no date. Even so, we love the invitation's subtle allusion to interactivity. Think about it? Flip books were one of the first forms of interactive media (you had to flip the pages to see a moving image). But we were also a little puzzled by Comcast's choice of images. The flip book opens with an image of a TV - albeit a circa 1960s console model - that morphs blurringly into the image of a TV, albeit a nifty flat-screen 2004 model. So, what's the secret message here? That the future of television is... television? Makes sense given that the Comcast Spotlight guys and gals sell TV ad time.