Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Nielsen's bid to restore faith in TV ads


New electronic ratings from the television-viewing measurement firm could help save ad-supported TV.

By Susanna Hamner, Business 2.0 Magazine writer-reporter

June 27 2006: 2:47 PM EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Business 2.0 Magazine) -- Nielsen's famous TV ratings are getting a serious shakeup - one that people in the advertising industry say is long overdue.

While Nielsen has already made partial moves to the electronic measurement of TV audiences in the largest television markets, in smaller cities - which make up more than half of the U.S. population - it still depends on household-survey participants to fill in handwritten diaries. But that old system is finally on its way out, thanks to challengers in the TV-ratings business and the threat that the TV-advertising industry faces from online ads.

"It's incredible that one company has so much power," says Derek Robson, co-managing director of advertising agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners. "Nielsen's ratings system has been viewed with a bit of skepticism for a long time, and there hasn't been anything out there to compete with it."

READ THE ARTICLE AT BUSINESS 2.0

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