• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 15, 2007

Madison Avenue has long desired TV commercial ratings data. It's now about to have its wish fulfilled - six-fold. Nielsen tomorrow is expected to announce a new plan that will provide six separate streams of data to advertisers, agencies, TV outlets.

According to the plan, the new, multiple streams of average commercial minutes ratings data will be released beginning in May and Nielsen's clients will have until the end of August to evaluate them before a decision is made on how and whether they should become the official ratings currency for the new TV season beginning in September 2007.

The plan, which is the result of a series of client discussions that began in early December, following a special public meeting to address, which of the ratings streams should be used for processing TV commercial ratings (Media Daily News Dec. 8, 2006).

Following those discussions, Nielsen has decided to add three new streams to the three it already produces as part of its current TV program ratings. The new streams will include: "live" plus one-day, "live" plus two-days, and "live" plus three days of playback via digital video recorders. Nielsen currently provides three streams of data for "live" only, "live" plus same day, and "live" plus seven days of playback.

Additionally, Nielsen will slightly alter the definition of a television "day" from 24-hours to 27-hours to allow prime-time programs to be credited for the first day of viewing even if they are watched during prime-time the next evening.

Nielsen has said all of these new data streams would be free to existing customers for the duration of the evaluation period, but that it plans to charge separately for each stream if and when they become official ratings currency next September, a move that could prove a boon to parent VNU's bottom line.

The new ratings streams could also have a profound impact on the way TV advertising is bought and sold. Aside for providing greater accountability for advertising exposure, the networks have hoped the shift would allow them to regain time-shifted audiences as part of their ratings guarantees to advertisers. The networks lost that option during last year's upfront advertising marketplace, when - due to soft market conditions - they agreed to provide program audience guarantees on the basis of "live" only data.

During the public client meeting Nielsen held Dec. 7, 2006 in New York, a consensus seemed to emerge that "live" only ratings might not be the best measure of the TV advertising marketplace - and that "live" plus same day, or "live" plus one or two days might be fairer representation of audience delivery for advertisers.

With the exception of a agency executives - most notably Mediaedge:cia's Rino Scanzoni and Lyle Schwartz - Madison Avenue has been somewhat circumspect on that subject, and the issue of "live" only audience guarantees is expected to reemerge during the 2007-08 upfront advertising negotiations, despite the presence of the new time-shifted audience ratings streams.

CBS research chief David Poltrack has suggested that the marketplace might ultimately settle on a stratified approach that assigns higher CPM (cost per thousand) values for deals that are guaranteed on the basis of "live" only ratings, which cheaper CPMs for deals that incorporate more of the time-shifted audiences.