Nielsen Steps Up Paper Diary Replacement Plan

Nielsen is planning to install nearly 15,000 television audience meters in approximately 7,000 homes across the 140 markets currently measured by Local TV paper diaries.

The firm, whose target is to use electronic TV measurement in all 210 of its Local TV markets, says the installations will address the limitations of using only set-top box data for audience measurement, with new meters installed in specific homes with known demographics and TV viewing behavior, and including individuals who view through over-the-air broadcast. In a bid to capture all in-market tuning, Nielsen will also include viewing from homes across the 140 markets that contribute to its National People Meter panel, ensuring that broadcast stations and digital sub-channels that are not included in set-top-box data are measured.

Kelly Abcarian (pictured), SVP, Nielsen Product Leadership, comments: 'We've made great strides to incorporate data from set-top-boxes into our Local TV measurement, however, in that process we've uncovered significant challenges with the data. To solve for these limitations, especially measuring growing audiences viewing via over-the-air broadcast, we looked at multiple solutions including online recruited panels and quick-query surveys. Ultimately, we concluded that only Nielsen's proven TV audience meters allow us to address the challenges that come with set-top-box data'.

Web site: www.nielsen.com .