• by Joe Mandese , January 7, 2008

Nielsen late Friday announced time frames for two major data initiatives, including a new "enhanced weighting" procedure that has the potential of generating differences in ratings estimates effective with the next television season. In that latter initiative, Nielsen said it will revise the algorithms it uses to weight national ratings beginning in September 2008, and that the revision would likely have an effect on both program and average commercial minute audience estimates.

It was not clear at press time whether the enhanced weighting process has been audited or accredited by the Media Rating Council.

In a second announcement, Nielsen unveiled the schedule for consolidating its various national ratings data systems to a single "calculation platform" over the next two years. The new platform will take services utilizing two different systems--pre-aggregated, quarter-hour data products such as Galaxy Explorer, MIT files, market breaks, and most of Nielsen's published reports; and individual minute, person-by-person data products such as Npower and the average commercial minute MIT file--and put them on a single platform providing consistent estimates across all products and reports.

Nielsen said moving to a single platform would enable it to modify its products and data streams much more rapidly, and that the move would make it easier to integrate audience data from non-traditional sources such as the Internet, mobile devices and digital set-top devices.