LPM Trials Record Higher African-American Audiences

Nielsen's Local People Meter (LPM) audience measurement system, closely scrutinised since claims last year that it under-represented people of color, actually counts a higher proportion of African-American viewers than traditional diary systems, according to the company's latest stats from trials in Dallas and Detroit.

LPMs fully replaced the old meter / diary measurement system in Dallas and Detroit at the beginning of January. Last November, when the two systems ran side by side, viewing levels measured by the LPM were 14% higher in Dallas and 18% higher in Detroit than those recorded with the diary system. Viewing levels for African Americans were 24% higher in Dallas and 21% higher in Detroit.

During the daytime slot (9am to 3pm), African-American viewing levels rose 31% in Dallas and 37% in Detroit. There were also large increases between 10.30pm and 12am (up 40% in Detroit), especially among younger viewers. There were smaller increases (10% in Dallas, 6% in Detroit) for primetime (7pm to 10pm) viewing.

Nielsen states that LPMs are more accurate because they continuously record viewing by all household members. In addition, the LPM system uses larger samples. The number of households in the sample has risen from 420 to 612 in Dallas, and from 410 to 622 in Detroit.

Nielsen also claims that the samples are more representative of the population, thanks to a higher rate of acceptance among households asked to join the LPM research.

Nielsen currently operates LPM services in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Detroit and Dallas, and intends to introduce them in Atlanta later this year. The company's web site is at www.nielsenmedia.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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