Nielsen Media Agreement with NBC

Nielsen Media Research, a subsidiary of VNU Media Measurement & Information, has reached a landmark, seven-year agreement with NBC in the States to provide audience measurement services to all of NBC's national and local television businesses.

These include the NBC Television Network; cable networks Bravo, CNBC and MSNBC; Telemundo; the 14 NBC-owned-and-operated television stations, and the 13 Telemundo television stations. It is the largest, most comprehensive agreement of its kind in the history of media research.

Also NBC has agreed to support the largest-ever expansion of Nielsen's National People Meter Sample. When all elements of the expansion plan are complete, the effective size of the National People Meter Sample will grow from 5,000 households to nearly 10,000 homes.

'We are extremely pleased to extend our long-standing business partnership with NBC, one of the world's preeminent broadcasters, and to continue to provide NBC with the highest quality, most reliable audience measurement services available today,' said Michael P. Connors, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of VNU's Media Measurement & Information group, and a member of VNU's Executive Board. 'This contract reflects Nielsen Media Research's commitment to excellence in measurement services, and enhances the company's leadership position as the global 'currency' for media research services in the international media marketplace.'

The agreement also builds on a strong engineering foundation between the two companies. NBC has agreed to implement Nielsen's digital encoding system to be used in Nielsen's new metering system for producing television ratings.

The new Active/Passive metering system will be introduced in 2004. In sample homes, the A/P Meter will identify programs, stations and networks from electronic codes embedded in programs at the distribution source. NBC and Nielsen engineers will work closely together as new digital distribution systems come to the market.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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