Nielsen To Implement Recommendations Of Independent Task Force On TV Measurement.

Nielsen Media Research made public the report of The Independent Task Force on Television Measurement.

The 19-member Task Force, chaired by former Congresswoman Cardiss Collins of Illinois, has been working for more than eight months, collecting information from Nielsen clients and community leaders, in order to make recommendations to Nielsen about how the ratings service can more accurately measure diverse television audiences.

The Task Force was announced in April 2004, on a recommendation by Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY), as an independent body charged with addressing community concerns that Nielsen’s Local People Meter (LPM) services may not have been fully counting people of color. The Task Force received the full support and cooperation of Nielsen.

“The Task Force is to be commended for taking on this responsibility,” said Congressman Rangel. “Mrs. Collins and all the other members of the Task Force are to be commended for their hard work and dedication. After talking with Susan Whiting, who is the president of Nielsen, I am confident that Nielsen is now moving in the right direction.”

The Task Force reported that, “[I]n our conversations with senior management, Nielsen conveyed the importance of accurately measuring a constantly changing American population, using evolving technology. While we have made a number of specific suggestions about how Nielsen can and should improve its measurement of our changing population, we also need to point out
that the amount and quality of TV ratings data generated daily by Nielsen for hundreds of local stations and networks has been vital to the success of the U.S. television industry.”

The areas where the Task Force recommended improvement were the composition of the LPM samples, training for the field force, fault rates, diversity levels at Nielsen, and communications with the communities affected by ratings.

To view complete report CLICK below (Adobe Acrobat Reader required):

http://www.everyonecounts.tv/news/documents/taskforcereport.pdf