Univision Joins Nielsen TV Index.

Univision Communications Inc. and Nielsen Media Research announced that they have reached an agreement under which Univision will join Nielsen’s national TV ratings service, the Nielsen Television Index (NTI). Univision will become the first Spanish-language television network to be included in this service, which provides television ratings for all the major U.S. Networks such as ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, etc. Previously, the Univision Network solely subscribed to Nielsen’s National Hispanic Television Index (NHTI), which measures only Hispanic audiences. Univision will also continue to subscribe to NHTI.

“This is a historic step for Univision, which firmly plants us among the mainstream broadcasters,” said Ray Rodriguez, President and Chief Operating Officer, Univision Communications. “Univision will finally be measured alongside its main competitors, the major English-language broadcast networks, and for the first time, advertisers and media buyers will be able to see the audience Univision delivers in the national charts. We’re confident that this move will validate Univision’s ability to successfully compete against any network in the country and provide us with a powerful tool to attract marketers that had previously been reluctant to advertise in Spanish.”

As part of the agreement, Univision will maintain its subscription to NHTI until September 2007, when the National People Meter (NPM) sample, upon which NTI is based, will become the sole sample for both English-language and Spanish-language media. The NPM sample, comprised of approximately 10,000 households, is subscribed to by broadcast networks, cable networks, syndicators, advertisers and agencies nationwide.

“We are delighted to welcome Univision as the first Spanish-language NTI network,” said Sara Erichson, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Nielsen’s national services. “As we move toward one comprehensive ratings system, we will continue to work with all of our clients to ensure that the NPM sample appropriately represents the growing U.S. Hispanic population. In the meantime, NHTI is still the largest, most representative national sample of Hispanic audiences currently available.”

“Univision’s audience will now take its rightful place — measured alongside its peer networks’ audiences,” said Ceril Shagrin, Senior Vice President of Corporate Research, Univision Communications. “We are pleased with the progress Nielsen has made to date and will continue to work with them to further refine the NPM sample. We are confident that with the initiatives Nielsen has in place, the NPM sample of Hispanic audiences will have as representative a sample as NHTI by September 2007 or earlier.”

Data for Univision will be available in the NPM sample and corresponding reports and software systems beginning December 26, 2005.