Media and Internet Help Nielsen Growth

Nielsen has reported increased second quarter revenues of $1,304m, up 12% from the same period in the previous year; and a year-on-year rise of 12% in first half revenues to $2,518m.

Operating income for the second quarter 2008 was $284m, compared with $156m for the six months ended June 30, 2007. The 2007 results were negatively impacted by $16m and $75m of charges relating to items such as restructuring costs, deal related costs, and compensation agreements. Adjusting for these items, operating income on a constant currency basis increased 24%.

By sector, for the first half of the year, consumer services revenues - which include marketing research - grew 14.9% to $1,426m. Constant currency revenue growth of 6.3% was primarily driven by growth of 6.0% in retail measurement, 8.8% in customized research, and 9.7% in other services, which include product development wing BASES, and analytical consulting.

Overall, there was continued solid growth across all regions, with double digit growth in emerging markets and Latin America. In the US, the firm says continued price compression resulted in low single digit growth across all product lines with the exception of analytical consulting.

Revenues for media measurement increased 13.5% to $840m for the six months ended June 30, 2008 versus $740m for the first half of 2007. The firm said that constant currency revenue growth of 12.4% was largely due to an 8.6% increase in Nielsen Media Research (NMR) North America, a 24.2% increase in online revenues with growth in both the US and international markets, and $30m in revenues as a result of the Telephia acquisition.

Nielsen put NMR North America's growth down to continued demand for television audience measurement services, new business, price increases, and the continued Local People Meter (LPM) expansion.

Earlier in the year, the company acquired TV analysis and software company Audience Analytics and IAG Research (subsequently rebranded as Nielsen IAG) to expand its TV and Internet analytics services. The firm also took the decision to ditch 'Project Apollo', the joint initiative with Arbitron which had intended to improve understanding of the link between consumer exposure to advertising through multiple media and shopping / purchasing behaviour.

Web site: 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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