Trouble - of rather different sorts - for audience measurement providers on both sides of the Atlantic. The UK's radio audience research body RAJAR is being sued for £66m, while in the US Nielsen Media Research has been criticised by News Corporation over its imminent launch of People Meter technology in New York.
News Corp / Nielsen
News Corp. yesterday issued a statement criticizing Nielsen's decision to deploy its People Meter system in New York despite 'growing evidence that the measurement's methodology is flawed and may undercount viewership by as much as 25 percent'. Lachlan Murdoch, Deputy Chief Operating Officer of News Corp. and Chairman of Fox Television Stations Group, said News Corp had spoken to Nielsen in January, recommending that it conduct a review prior to roll out.
The request was based on 'growing evidence that the methodology may be flawed - particularly in large, ethnically diverse urban areas' and could undercount viewership among minority and young viewers in particular. Although the statement did not go into further detail, concerns may centre around 'button-fatigue' or whether some Nielsen respondents may not make the regular effort to follow instructions and record their nightly demo data in the People Meter devices.
'While we welcome their decision to delay deployment of the system in the Los Angeles and Chicago markets', continues the statement, 'we cannot understand how Nielsen can still proceed with the meter in New York while such significant issues remain as to the reliability of their numbers. If the meter isn't good enough for Los Angeles and Chicago yet, it certainly isn't good enough for the nation's largest market'.
New York has 7.3m TV homes. Nielsen also plans to introduce local people meters in a fourth major market this year - San Francisco - and the other six top ten markets by 2006. The system was first introduced in Boston in 2002.
The News Corp statement concludes 'The foundation of a viable broadcasting industry is reliable, accurate measurement of viewership. Properly designed and used, the people meter can be an efficient and reliable measurement tool. As presently formulated, it is not'. Murdoch called for 'all necessary steps, including an independent audit of the people meter methodology' to be taken to ensure the credibility of the new system before launch.
Responding, Nielsen spokesman Jack Loftus said yesterday that the company's methodology and procedures for the local People Meters are the same as it uses for its national sample, and it is confident of the quality of the sample for New York. He acknowledged concerns about quality issues in Los Angeles and Chicago, where launch is now slated for July and August respectively. 'There's no evidence that (People Meters) undercount viewers. As we get close to the (local People Meter) launch date, we look at all the sample characteristics in each market and decide on an individual basis if we're ready'.
RAJAR / MacKenzie
The UK story is a long-running one. Kelvin MacKenzie, former Sun Editor and Chairman / CEO of The Wireless Group, is suing for £66m in damages for his TalkSport radio station and other smaller stations, three years after first demanding changes to the system.
MacKenzie favours a GfK system in which researchers use watches to record listening and which gives TalkSport more than three times the audience suggested by the RAJAR figures, which are based on listening diaries. RAJAR claims that the watch-based system records background noise on occasions when the listener is paying no attention, and says that its board agreed unanimously not to adopt electronic measurement without further testing.
MacKenzie argues that the inaccuracy is costing his Wireless Group £1.5m a month and extrapolates the £66m based on losses from his first complaint in 2000 through to next spring, when he expects a judgment. He has called RAJAR's behaviour 'preposterous, scandalous and shocking' while RAJAR's press release called his claims 'ludicrous'. The trade body said it would vigorously contest the claims and that legal advice suggested the action would be struck out before it came to trial.
RAJAR is wholly owned by the Commercial Radio Companies Association (CRCA) and by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) and its research contractor is Ipsos-RSL Ltd.
Thanks to BusinessWire ( http://home.businesswire.com ), Reuters ( www.reuters.com ) and WARC ( www.warc.com ) from whom some of the above is sourced.
News Corporation's web site is at www.newscorp.com, Nielsen Media Research's at www.nielsenmedia.com and RAJAR's at www.rajar.co.uk
