Media Remains Jewel In Nielsen Crown, Relatively Exempt From Restructuring

Nielsen's media research operations account for less than a third of the company's total revenues, but they continue to be at the heart of the organization, according to supplement information filed along with last week's third quarter earnings report.

Nielsen's media research operations took in $1.067 billion during the first three quarters of 2007, or 31% of the company's $3.429 billion total.

While they were not the fastest-growing sector of Nielsen's operations - growing 8.4% over the first nine months of 2006 - media research clearly is the companies jewels and took relatively little hit from the massive reorganization that has made deep cuts in other areas of the Nielsen Co.

Nielsen's media research operations, which include TV, online and entertainment, accounted for only 10.8% of the $102 million in non-corporate restructuring costs reported during the first nine months of the year. By comparison, Nielsen's consumer research operations, were the fastest growing (+15.7% over the first nine months of 2006) and biggest (58% of the first nine months of 2007) source of revenues, but got hit with 84.3% of the non-corporate restructuring costs.

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Nielsen's business media operations, including conferences and trade publications such as Adweek, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter, were the worst performing sector during the past nine months, with revenues declining 3.4% from the same period in 2006, but they remain an important source of revenues, accounting for 11% of Nielsen's total. The company attributed the drop to "continued softness in advertising revenues." The unit's revenues were especially hard hit during the third quarter, dropping 8.2% from the third quarter of 2006. Nielsen's business media operations accounted for 4.9% of the company's non-corporate restructuring costs during the first nine months.

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