Nielsen to Treble Size of US TV Ratings Panel

Nielsen has said that it intends to treble the size of its National People Meter (NPM) TV ratings panel by 2011, to include 37,000 US households and 100,000 people.

The NPM panel currently comprises c.12,000 US households and 35,000 people. The increase in size will result from the inclusion of sample homes from the introduction of Nielsen's Local People Meters (LPM) into 56 local US markets.

The firm says that this larger sample will support the more 'granular' measurement that its clients are seeking as the TV industry moves towards commercial minute ratings.

Commented Sara Erichson, Executive VP Client Services Nielsen North America: 'With a panel of a hundred thousand people, we can more precisely pinpoint the viewing of all demographic groups and dig deeper into the audience levels for networks of all sizes.'

Scott Springer, Product Leader of Audience Measurement for Nielsen Media explained that the expansion will support the objectives of Nielsen's Anytime Anywhere Media Measurement (A2M2), which measures all TV and video platforms, including personal video equipment such as hand-held devices and to other platforms outside the house. 'This much larger national sample creates the necessary foundation for an integrated measurement approach,' added Springer.

The NPM panel is used to produce ratings for national broadcasting, cable and syndicated television programming and is composed of randomly selected households that reflect the overall US population. Earlier this year, the firm announced that it would be enhancing the weighting of its National People Meter (NPM) ratings sample, with the aim of making it more representative of the US population (www.mrweb.com/drno/news6745.htm )

LPMs have been installed in the ten largest local US markets and there are plans to roll them out across another 46 markets between now and 2011.

Nielsen is online at www.nielsen.com.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.

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