• by Paul Gough , April 7, 2004

Yielding to a public advocacy campaign that generated immense political pressure, Nielsen Media Research Tuesday said it would delay until June the implementation of its local people meter service in New York so the company can spend more time explaining the system to multicultural audiences who fear they're being underrepresented.

Nielsen had planned to begin using people meters as its official TV ratings methodology in New York beginning Thursday, but will now wait until June 3. The decision capped weeks of controversy that swirled around the normally mundane world of media research, with community leaders and politicians publicly urging Nielsen to postpone the New York people meters. The announcement itself had political overtones--it was made jointly by U.S. Rep. Charles Rangel, D-New York, and Nielsen Media Research CEO Susan Whiting, at Rangel's Harlem office building.

Nielsen said the delay wasn't related to questions about the people meter's accuracy, which Whiting said was superior to the hybrid TV set meter/diary-based method the new devices would replace.

"I'm absolutely convinced that it's a more accurate service than the paper diaries," she said. Whiting acknowledged that the people meter system comes up with different data than the meter/diary system, showing more cable viewing in general spread across more channels. But she noted that people meters have been used for 15 years to generate national TV ratings, and for 12 years in Nielsen's national Hispanic network ratings service.

To date, Boston is the only local TV market being measured by people meters, but the delay of the New York rollout--as well as ones that Nielsen elected to make in Los Angeles and Chicago--ironically will delay the deployment of additional meters that ultimately will improve the representation of Hispanics and African Americans in Nielsen's national TV ratings sample. By combining some of the people meter households it is deploying in local TV markets with its national ratings sample, Nielsen plans to bring its national sample up to 10,000 by the end of 2006--from 5,500 currently. The increased national sample size will boost the representation of both Hispanics and African Americans.

"We have a lot of experience, and so does the world in People Meters," Whiting said.

Yet Nielsen, stung by a massive public relations, direct mail, and newspaper advertising campaign against the New York people meter launch, announced it would work with a task force that would study the counting of African American and Latinos. Nielsen also said it would launch a campaign of its own aimed at politicians and community leaders to assure them that Local People Meters were accurate. The campaign would involve briefings and presentations, and perhaps advertising.

"We certainly had other people running ads," Whiting noted.

Details of the task force are still to be worked out, but Rangel said that it would involve media professionals. Rangel said it was important to ensure a fair and accurate cross-section of African Americans and Latinos.

"It is so important to the community that they get an accurate report" of viewing, Rangel said. But Rangel didn't pretend to be an expert in the ins and outs of television ratings, saying only that he had been drawn into the controversy after hearing from "so many" of his colleagues who were concerned about whether minority audiences were being undercounted in Nielsen ratings.

"I don't know that, and I still don't know. But we've got a few months to find out," Rangel said.

Ironically, the massive marketing effort against Nielsen may actually have hurt the researcher's ability to develop a representative sample. The controversy surrounding the campaign to delay the New York people meters has caused some prospective panelists in minority households to shy away from joining the sample. "Some of them said they didn't want to have anything to do with it," said Jack Loftus, senior vice president-communications at Nielsen.

Agency executives, who have almost universally endorsed the move to people meters, attributed the decision to politics rather than good business practice, but said the three-month delay would not have a material impact on the marketplace.

"Diaries have been outdated for years. What's another couple of months?" said Brad Adgate, senior vice president of research at Horizon Media. Adgate said if it added to the comfort level of the local people meter results, then it would be worth it.

Carat Insight's Rob Frydlewicz didn't think the wait would do much damage to agencies, although he said that more accurate data would be welcome.

"The [worst] thing would be to start [with Local People Meter service] and then pull the plug," he said. "Better that they wait and then have smooth sailing."

Agencies are looking for better data on the local level--a step closer to ratings that can be rolled up to national ratings. The Local People Meter surpasses what can be done with the paper-based diaries, buyers say.

"Obviously, we want to make sure it's right. If in fact it's being delayed because there are definitive flaws in the collection process or training or getting the right panel together, we understand that it needs to be done. We wouldn't want to have it be launched with inaccurate data," said Maribeth Papuga, senior vice president/director of local broadcast at MediaVest USA. Horizon's Adgate said that with the growth of Spanish-language media in particular, it would be a good idea to allow for future changes in the demographic.

"That's why I think that this stuff has to be looked at repeatedly, and revisited repeatedly," Adgate said.

Joe Mandese contributed to this story.