Susan Whiting: Nielsen's PPM decision to be made by Q2
Nielsen Media Research announced it has until the end of Q2 '05 to decide whether to form a joint venture with Arbitron for a TV and radio audience measurement service based on Arbitron's passive PPM system, possibly breaking the in-house tether its current LPM measurement system requires. Nielsen CEO Susan Whiting detailed the announcement in a letter to Nielsen clients. Nielsen has been working with Arbitron for a few years now in testing and developing people meter technology. The company has been meeting with groups of clients over the last two months with Arbitron, with the two companies presenting some of the findings that came out of the joint tests. But as Whiting's letter states, there are still a lot of questions about how this could change the currency if Nielsen used a passive measurement technology. It changes the definition of viewing-does it change how the viewer comprehends viewing, say socializing at a friend's house or at a bar? How will passive measurement change the currency of the ratings overall?
CLICK HERE for Whiting's letter.
Karen Gyinesi, Nielsen spokesperson, tells RBR/TVBR there still needs to be more testing, on details like whether or not the inaudible codes used will pick up viewing in other rooms or adjacent apartments, for example. She also dispelled claims that that Nielsen has been reluctant to go public in Houston because it has plans to introduce its own local people meters in the market: "We see a lot of potential with the PPM, so much, in fact, that VNU [Nielsen parent] has started another possible joint venture with Arbitron using the PPM for market research sample," says Gyinesi. "We are not bringing local people meters into Houston. There has been some misreporting that I've seen in some of the trades that say we are bringing LPMs to Houston and we have contacted them. This has been blown out of proportion by a few trades that haven't come to us and given us the option to comment."
In addition, she assured us that Nielsen is continuing to give Arbitron support, both financially as well as having their methodology team's work together to share recruitment efforts.
Are you reading this from a forwarded email?
