Print Page 7/14/2010

NEW YORK: The Nielsen Co. today said it won accreditation from the Media Rating Council for its 25 Local People Meter markets.

“As part of the annual audit/accreditation process, the original 10 LPM markets had their original accreditation renewed, while the remaining 15 markets were granted accreditation for the first time,” Nielsen said.

Local ratings for the largest 25 U.S. markets representing 49 percent of the population and 64 percent of local commercial TV ad expenditures are covered by the MRC accreditation. The decision follows another by the MRC to renew Nielsen’s national ratings service accreditation.

Nielsen said the process involved assuring the accuracy of the LPMs. The company is establishing a procedure to check each of its meters to make sure they’re picking up the “optimum level” of watermarks. Nielsen is also monitoring sites in each market to capture signatures for all local client TV programming. Back-up sites for each also have been established.

“Nielsen has... made a multimillion dollar investment in redundant signal monitoring for broadcast and cable networks, and will bring a new state-of-the art satellite monitoring facility on line in July of this year,” the TV ratings firm said. “This facility, located in Lebanon, Ohio, will provide a duplication of the facility that currently operates in Nielsen’s Tampa, Fla.-area Global Technology and Information Center.” The facilities will operate in parallel.

Nielsen is also generating regular reports on code performance for client stations, as well as providing low-performance analytics. These analytics revealed 22 stations with low code performance that was then corrected. Ongoing analysis of measurement over cable systems is helping identify potential signal-processing impairments. An audio analysis tool has been added to help stations improve sound signals, and an “All Other Tuning” project was undertaken to tag viewing not credited to an identified viewing source.
-- Deborah D. McAdams   Print Page