• by Larry Goldstein , August 16, 2006

As the debate wages over whether Nielsen should provide TV ratings without VCR recording data already baked in, few people may know that it already does that.

While Nielsen's printed reports have always come in just one flavor, with VCR recording included in the published audience numbers for network, syndication and cable, the ratings giant provides more detail in the broadcast data delivered to "solutions providers" (the term Nielsen uses to refer to third-party processors of its data) as well as agencies that develop their own systems. The databases used to generate Nielsen's printed ratings reports have contained a VCR flag for years, with and without VRC recording. This carried forward late last year when Nielsen began publishing three data streams: "live," "live" plus same day, and "live" plus seven days of viewing, all of which were released with and without VCR recording records.

Cable is the lone TV segment that does not break out audiences without VCR record in the pocketpiece data. That's likely due to historical support for separate reports for each network as well as concerns regarding sample reliability. This is certainly an issue deserving some attention.

Why all the confusion? There are practical limits to the amount of data that can be reasonably included in printed reports. More importantly, in this age of pervasive computing, few third-party ratings processors support the option to report all of the data Nielsen provides, and users may not know where to look when they do. Checking with Donovan Data Systems, a major third-party processor, I found that its new Audience Estimator and Research Writers systems do support VCR-less reporting, but its Netpak and Steward systems, the primary tools for managing buys, do not.

It could be that some people at the top who are so vocal about ripping VCR recording out of the ratings are either too far removed from the Nielsen data to know that option is already there, or don't know where to find it. The real agenda seems to be focused on pushing Nielsen to sanction removal of VCR data as the industry's official ratings currency. There's no question that playback trumps recording as the real value for advertisers. Why pay for audiences that aren't actually exposed to the ads? As an industry, we should be looking for that across the board, not just for average commercial minute ratings. And systems developers must revamp their software to support it.

When the VCR record issue was injected into discussions regarding Nielsen's new data streams within the American Association of Advertising Agencies' Media Research Committee earlier this year, many in the group were not aware of the actual contents of Nielsen's data deliverables. At the time, I was well into development of a new television targeting system for PHD, so this was very much top-of-mind for us. But Nielsen's data formats were far removed from the information agency media researchers normally deal with everyday.

Agencies should roll up their sleeves more often and dig into the details of the data Nielsen and other research suppliers provide for use in the systems developed to guide planning and buying decisions. We may never know how they came to be so distant from the raw materials of the trade, but I do have to wonder whether downsizing and outsourcing are the real crux of the problem. Very few shops have a significant research and development effort focused on leveraging the research commonly in use in our industry to build their own systems. I'd be in the dark, too, were it not for 15-plus years spent mining this data to develop media planning and buying systems.

Nielsen has asked its clients for input on its plan to provide average commercial minute ratings data. There are many legitimate issues to be addressed, and the Nielsen management has been very open about the need to define the new reporting standard. There is an abundance of confusion across the industry about this topic. Nielsen's plan does not call for published ratings to actual commercials or even the average commercial. It calls for the industry to decide what constitutes an acceptable definition of the minutes containing commercials--which ones to include or not include. Do we count minutes consisting of both program and commercial content? Only commercial content? If a mix, how much must be commercial time?

Of course, proper identification of commercial vs. non-commercial content, alignment of clocks and related issues are critical. Those calling for the Media Rating Council to review the issue rightly recognize that it is sufficiently complicated to warrant calling in the industry's auditor. Thankfully, that's a prescription for looking very closely at the details before making decisions that will likely have a profound impact on the industry.