TV RATINGS SERVICE CATCHES FLAK
Nielsen under attack as it tries to rate Hispanic audiences
By DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News

Last May, comic George Lopez took center stage at a glitzy Broadway theater gathering of potential ABC network advertisers to deliver this pithy prediction: "Now that Friends is gone ... it's our time, amigos."

Whether Latinos will finally get a chance to fill television casts is debatable. They are, however, at the core of messy fight over the way television ratings are set by Nielsen Media Research, a New York agency trying to upgrade paper diaries to "people meters" that measure who's watching what, when.

Nielsen – the bible for programmers and advertisers – is under its harshest attack in decades. Blacks and Latinos, politicians and many networks themselves are taking aim at the accuracy of a new metering system for local markets.

It's being rolled out around the country in the 10 largest markets first and has hit the biggest walls of resistance in New York and Los Angeles. It isn't scheduled for rollout in Dallas-Fort Worth – one of the nation's top 10 markets – until Nov. 11, 2005.

The issue affects programming decisions and advertising rates. Both are hugely important, as programming shapes popular culture and advertising shapes commerce in an industry where a 30-second Super Bowl spot can soar to $2 million.

FOR THE REST OF THIS STORY VISIT:
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/stories/061904dnbusnielsen.81b37.html