• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, May 19, 2004

In what has grown into an incredibly partisan and politically distorted battle, Nielsen Media Research Tuesday got some much needed support for the rollout of its local people meter measurement system. BET, the first and most quintessentially African American television entity, threw its support behind the new metering system, as well as Nielsen's New York people meter sample calling it a more accurate means of measuring African American viewers.

The endorsement by BET is symbolic, because it offsets mounting pressure from African American and Latino civil rights groups, which have claimed Nielsen's local people meters do not accurately represent the viewing behavior of people of color. On Tuesday, civil rights leader and presidential candidate Rev. Al Sharpton led a rally of about 30 people on Nielsen's New York offices to protest Nielsen's plans to introduce the people meters. Sharpton vowed to stage weekly protests and possibly daily picketing and even civil disobedience in an effort to block the new meters.

In a statement released late Tuesday, BET said concern over a decline in ratings for some broadcast programs that appeal to African American audiences was ironic, because, "these audiences are, in reality, watching many other cable channels, including BET."

In fact, a report released last week by Nielsen showed that the share of African American viewing declined 27 percent among broadcast TV outlets, but increased 38 percent among cable TV outlets when measured by people meters. Nielsen executives, cable TV and ad agency researchers say this is both because of the larger sample size and the greater accuracy of people meters in capturing viewing to smaller and more niche-oriented TV channels, such as BET.

"Quite frankly, we don't understand why some broadcasters would oppose any method of truthfully tracking what viewers are and are not watching, regardless of their ethnic background," said Debra Lee, president-COO of BET. Ironically, BET is owned by Viacom, which also owns CBS and UPN, which are expected to experience lower shares of viewing among African Americans via the people meters, but Viacom executives, including CBS Executive Vice President-Research and Planning Dave Poltrack, have nonetheless supported people meters because they are a superior measurement system. Among the major broadcast groups, Fox has been the most vociferous in its opposition of the local people meters and is known to have helped back advocacy groups opposing the meters.

While the major Spanish-language TV networks have yet to make public statements on the issue, Univision's top researcher, Ceril Shagrin has said she supports the rollout of local people meters.

Last week, the media research committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, Madison Avenue's de facto TV ratings watchdogs, issued a supportive, though tardy and somewhat tepid statement backing the introduction of local people meters.

Meanwhile, it's unclear how BET's public support of the local meters might affect opposition from the African American community.

"It's a known fact that minority consumers - especially African Americans - are this country's largest consumers of entertainment products," said BET's Lee. "It seems only fair that their voices be heard as advertisers decide where to spend their dollars to try and reach that audience. Networks like BET could certainly benefit from information that depicts the true viewing patterns of African-American consumers."

Share Of African American Audience*

           Diary/Set-Meter   Local People Meter   Difference 
Broadcast             54.4                 40.4
-27% 
Cable                 39.2                 54.2         +38% 
PBS                    1.4                  1.3          -7% 

Source: Nielsen Media Research. *Persons 2-plus, total day audience shares during March 2004. Broadcast = English-language only.