MediaBuyerPlanner: The American Association of Advertising Agencies has sent a letter to Nielsen weighing in on the matter of Nielsen’s new commercial ratings.
The letter reiterates some concerns that other groups have raised – namely that the Monitor-Plus data used for commercial ratings has not been accredited by the MRC and that it doesn’t measure all cable networks – but also adds its own potentially combustible twist: the association wants VCR data excluded, MediaPost reports.
The VCR discussion goes back to the 1980s when Nielsen began reporting VCR audiences. The measurement company claimed it was not able to measure playback and so credited recording of TV shows as audience ratings whether they were actually watched or not.
This has been a sticking point with advertisers and agencies since then, who believe that the method inflates audience exposure, and indeed, agency analyses of Nielsen data have shown that as much as a third of the audience of some programs come from VCR recording. The letter claims that now is the proper time to resolve the situation.
The letter also points out that any data released by Nielsen needs to be MRC accredited and that Nielsen also needs to explain to the industry how the Monitor-Plus data can be brought up to speed in order to accurately identify and track all commercial minutes as well as to distinguish between national and local cable minutes.
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Vahe Habeshian BIO
08.11.06
