• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 11, 2008

The TV industry's top researcher has quietly conducted some client research to figure out whether it should make some big changes in the way it researches how people watch television. Findings of the study, a survey of Nielsen's biggest TV ratings clients on their preferences for adjusting the so-called C3 ratings that have become the de facto currency of the TV advertising marketplace, are expected to figure in a series of meetings Nielsen will hold with its national clients next week in New York and Los Angeles to update them on a series of important developments, including the future of C3 ratings. Other items on the agenda include how Nielsen is preparing for next year's transition to digital broadcast spectrum, DVR penetration and activity, and so-called "three-screen measurement" - the simultaneous measurement of audiences of TV, PC and mobile devices.

The study, which was conducted among an elite group of couple of hundred clients, including a heavy composition of people from Madison Avenue, grew out of Nielsen's last big client meeting in April, which also focused heavily on the quality and merits of its C3 ratings research methods. Among the big issues discussed then, and queried in the client survey conducted early this month, is how to deal with new "non-conforming" TV commercial formats that appear to be eluding Nielsen's conventional commercial monitoring systems. Those formats, which include hybrid forms of content and advertising that may not always be distinguishable, have proved vexing, and Nielsen executives have discussed everything from establishing new edit rules for defining them to stripping them out of the ratings process altogether.

The study also surveyed clients on whether Nielsen should discontinue some of the multitude of new TV ratings steams that it began providing to the marketplace when it began reporting time-shifted viewing from DVRs. They currently include live-only, live plus same day of DVR playback, live plus one day of DVR playback, live plus two days of DVR playback, live plus three days of DVR playback, and live plus seven days of DVR playback.

It's unclear how Nielsen plans to use findings from the client study, or whether it will in fact present them publicly next week. Another big question is how Nielsen might tabulate its results, and whether it would break out the results of "buy side" Madison Avenue executives vs. "sell side" TV researchers who would appear to have different agendas on influencing the outcome of any new commercial ratings estimates.

A call to a Nielsen spokesman was not returned at presstime.

The most significant implication of the client survey is how it might influence the way Nielsen includes, or excludes the new, as-yet-undefined commercial advertising formats.

"Some clients are now using commercial creative formats that blur the line between program and commercial content," the Nielsen survey reads. "While some of these new formats are thirty or sixty seconds in length, most are between two and three minutes in length, and include:

* "Tagged" or sponsored program promotions or program excerpts
* Sponsored short-form original programs ("Minisodes")
* Sponsored "program wraps" leading out of and into commercial breaks