Remember the report issued by the Independent Task Force on Television Measurement back in March? (3/24/05 TVBR #59) Three months later, Nielsen says it's making progress on the recommendations from the group that had been assembled to evaluate how Nielsen measures minority audiences. And the Chair of that task force, retired Rep. Cardiss Collins (D-IL), agrees. "Nielsen has done a commendable job at moving forward with many of our recommendations," she said in a statement distributed by Nielsen.

Here's where Nielsen says it has made progress in implementing the Task Force recommendations include:

Fault Rates - In the past several months, the Company put into place several programs to reduce fault rates, a number of which serve specific recommendations made by the Task Force. These programs include personal coaching, performance based incentives, proactive phone line installation and field staffing increases. Also in response to a recommendation made by the Task Force, Nielsen will publish a quarterly report on its progress in reducing fault rates in LPM markets.

Field Operations - The Task Force made suggestions for improving Nielsen's field operations in order to better serve diverse sample participants. These recommendations include translating written materials to sample households in their preferred languages and providing cultural training for field staff. In response, Nielsen has translated all of its recruitment materials for sample households into Spanish, developed key recruitment materials in Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, and Tagalog, and is tailoring its introductory video that is provided to new sample households for Asian audiences. Nielsen also recently added several training procedures on cultural sensitivity to its 10-week field training program and fully integrated a training course on Asian culture.

Corporate Diversity - The Company has taken a number of steps towards improving its diversity, as recommended by the Task Force. One initiative is the creation of a Diversity Council, which is comprised of Nielsen employees with diverse backgrounds and chaired by CEO Susan Whiting. At the Council's first meeting in June, members began drafting a diversity mission statement, goals and metrics and determined a number of initiatives across the Company that the Council will review. These initiatives are related to human capital, leadership commitment and accountability, training and communications, and supplier diversity, and will create a diversity mission statement, goals and metrics. The Diversity Council will continue to meet on a monthly basis.