Nielsen Hands Further $2.5m to Think Tank

Nielsen is to give its client think tank, the Council For Research Excellence (CRE), an additional $2.5m, bringing its total four-year investment to $10m.

Nielsen set up the CRE in 2005 with an initial $2.5m grant, as a body which conducts independent audience measurement research.

It is governed by a Board of Directors comprising 40 senior research professionals representing various industry interests, including advertisers, broadcast networks, cable networks and operators, broadcast stations, syndicators, and mainstream and ethnic agencies.

A smaller Steering Committee oversees operations, regularly meets with members from various industries, and makes recommendations to the Board.

The CRE also maintains several smaller working committees addressing particular research issues such as media consumption and engagement; non-response, set top box and universe estimates.

Recently, the CRE has conducted a video mapping study to examine Americans' multi-media use, and a study on non-response bias to understand the characteristics and habits of people who decline to participate in Nielsen's People Meter and diary measurement surveys.

'We continue to see the CRE as one of the best investments we can make towards bringing together people who often have competing agendas and different points of view,' stated Nielsen boss Susan Whiting. 'We look forward to the new ideas and insights our continued investment help generate.'

The council's Set Top Box subcommittee will use some of the new funding to commission a set top box study, while the Media Universe Estimates subcommittee will develop population standards for ownership of various types of media equipment such as TVs, computers, and digital video recorders.

In August, some Nielsen clients and a number of TV networks, major advertisers and media agencies set up the Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM) to fund new research into cross-platform and TV set-top box measurement. The CIMM has since stressed that it is not a competitor for Nielsen Media Research.

Web sites: www.nielsen.com and www.researchexcellence.com .