Cable Rips Nielsen’s Ad Ratings

CABLE RIPS NIELSEN'S AD RATINGS
[SOURCE: Multichannel News, AUTHOR: Linda Moss]
In part of a growing brouhaha, several top cable-research officials criticized Nielsen Media Research’s plans to start tallying national viewership for commercials this fall. Both Jack Wakshlag, Turner Broadcasting System’s chief research officer, and Tim Brooks, Lifetime Television’s executive vice president of research, voiced their concerns about various aspects of Nielsen’s plan to provide average national commercial-minute ratings, kicking off in November. Ad agency Magna Global USA also publicly blasted Nielsen’s announced commercial-rating initiative, which is being done at the request of the broadcast networks. Before it proceeds with these ratings, one of the issues Nielsen needs to address, according to Wakshlag and Brooks, is agreeing upon a definition of what constitutes a commercial minute. “Right now, a commercial minute is a minute that has at least one second of a commercial in it,” Wakshlag said. “I'm not sure if that’s fair or that’s the best way to go about doing it.” Any system Nielsen comes up with ultimately would need accreditation by the Media Rating Council, and it must be agreed upon by all of the ratings service’s clients, Brooks said.
http://www.multichannel.com/article/CA6353313.html?display=Breaking+News