Nielsen to Implement Recommendations of Independent Task Force on Television Measurement

Nielsen to Implement Recommendations of Independent Task Force on Television Measurement

Task Force report says "amount and quality of TV ratings data generated daily by Nielsen ... has been vital to the success of the U.S. television industry."

NEW YORK, March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Nielsen Media Research today made public the report of The Independent Task Force on Television Measurement. Nielsen's president and chief executive officer, Susan D. Whiting, congratulated the Task Force members for their outstanding work, and said the television ratings service will begin immediately to implement many of the report's recommendations.

The 19-member Task Force, chaired by former Congresswoman Cardiss Collins of Illinois, has been working for more than eight months, collecting information from Nielsen clients and community leaders, in order to make recommendations to Nielsen about how the ratings service can more accurately measure diverse television audiences.

The Task Force was announced in April 2004, on a recommendation by Rep. Charles B. Rangel (D-NY), as an independent body charged with addressing community concerns that Nielsen's Local People Meter (LPM) services may not have been fully counting people of color. The Task Force received the full support and cooperation of Nielsen.

"The Task Force is to be commended for taking on this responsibility," said Congressman Rangel. "Mrs. Collins and all the other members of the Task Force are to be commended for their hard work and dedication. After talking with Susan Whiting, who is the president of Nielsen, I am confident that Nielsen is now moving in the right direction."

The Task Force reported that, "[I]n our conversations with senior management, Nielsen conveyed the importance of accurately measuring a constantly changing American population, using evolving technology. While we have made a number of specific suggestions about how Nielsen can and should improve its measurement of our changing population, we also need to point out that the amount and quality of TV ratings data generated daily by Nielsen for hundreds of local stations and networks has been vital to the success of the U.S. television industry."

The areas where the Task Force recommended improvement were the composition of the LPM samples, training for the field force, fault rates, diversity levels at Nielsen, and communications with the communities affected by ratings.

The Task Force's full report is available on http://www.everyonecounts.tv/.

Susan Whiting accepted the report today on behalf of Nielsen from Mrs. Collins. "We are impressed with the constructive work undertaken by Mrs. Collins and the other members of the Task Force," said Whiting. "They have devoted an enormous amount of time and energy to this important task.

"The Task Force's first priority," continued Whiting, "was to understand the science of television audience measurement - including sampling, data collection, data processing and data reporting - and then to make practical recommendations about how to improve the service and help Nielsen do a better job of measuring America's highly diverse and changing population. We are committed to working with our clients to implement these recommendations."

"I am pleased to present to you the report of the Independent Task Force on Television Measurement," said Mrs. Collins. "I am quite proud of the hard work that the Task Force members have devoted to this project, and I believe the report will be extremely helpful in your efforts to ensure accurate measurement of persons of color.

"Nielsen and its staff are to be commended for its openness and support throughout this process," continued Mrs. Collins. "Responsiveness to our requests for information and respect of our independence was of utmost importance in carrying out our review of the Company's measurement practices."

Said Whiting: "Many of the recommendations by the Task Force will require support from our clients and agreement from the Media Rating Council which accredits audience measurement services such as Nielsen. We will work with our clients to obtain their support for these recommendations. We have an aggressive timetable for implementing these recommendations, and we need to move forward."

"Larger Issues" of Under-representation in TV Industry

While the Task Force focused its attention on Nielsen's television research, the report also expressed concern about the lack of inclusiveness among persons of color within the greater television industry. Mrs. Collins' statement summarized the Task Force opinion that "... there is concern that the LPM controversy may distract attention from the larger issue of under- representation among persons of color in the television industry. It would be unfortunate if the industry's longstanding failure to adequately represent persons of color on television or in positions of authority were ignored because of the more highly publicized concerns over LPMs."

About Nielsen Media Research

Nielsen Media Research is the leading provider of television audience measurement and related services, worldwide. Nielsen Media Research is part of the VNU Media Measurement & Information Group, a global leader in information services for the media and entertainment industries.

VNU is a global information and media company with leading market positions and recognized brands in marketing information. VNU is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in Haarlem, the Netherlands and New York, USA. The company employs 38,000 people. Total revenues amounted to EUR 3.8 billion in 2004. VNU is listed on the Euronext Amsterdam stock exchange.

For more information, please visit the VNU website at http://www.vnu.com/

SUMMARY OF TASK FORCE RECOMMENDATIONS
AND NIELSEN ACTIONS

1. LPM Sample
-- LPM Technology - The Task Force concluded that LPM technology can
more accurately measure the diverse viewing audience than, for
example, paper diaries. The demographic complexity of the nation's
urbanized TV markets, however, makes this task very difficult. To
meet this challenge, Nielsen will consider the Task Force's
recommendations, as discussed below, in consultation with its
clients. Additionally, Nielsen has already taken the following
initiatives:

- Initiated an approach to sample recruitment through a program
unique to Nielsen called "Membership." This involves specialized
hiring and training of our recruitment employees, and proprietary
techniques aimed at encouraging people to participate in Nielsen's
People Meter samples.
- Special incentives (financial) aimed at difficult-to-recruit
sample households and persons in those households.
- New recruitment video to better help sample households understand
more about who we are, what we do and what is required of them.
- Modified our pre-recruitment materials and contact information to
learn more about the potential sample home before we attempt to
recruit.
- Began testing personal coaching aimed at specific persons in the
home who are non-cooperators.
- Nielsen has set up a program of performance based incentives aimed
at rewarding respondents for good performance with the People
Meter. The company is about to implement that program which has
been under development.

-- LPM Sampling - US Census data is an important starting point for the
development of samples, but the Task Force recommends that
additional methods and data sources should be considered to
compensate for the potential of Census undercounts. In an effort
to address such concerns, Nielsen has utilized the following
procedures yielding more accurate Hispanic Universe estimates:

- While the decennial (10-year) Census is a starting point, the
Census Bureau updates and publishes new figures every June.
Nielsen incorporates these updates into its database every year.
- Nielsen also uses data provided by Claritas, a geo-demography
firm, to help establish "universe estimates" which are updated
every year.
- To verify these data, before a sample household is selected,
Nielsen sends its own field representatives into local market
neighborhoods to verify existing building counts.
- Most importantly, Nielsen has pioneered the development of
language use estimates in this country. It has conducted the
most extensive research program on language use in the country.
The Congressional Hispanic Caucus has recommended the use of
Nielsen's language use data to balance other media research
databases such as Arbitron's radio ratings.

Beyond this, and in order to focus on the concerns expressed by the
Task Force, Nielsen will be convening an advisory counsel of
academic, industry and government scholars for the purpose of
determining if additional data resources could improve the accuracy
of current Hispanic estimates.

In addition, on September 8, 2004 Nielsen and the William C.
Velasquez Institute (WCVI) announced the formation of a major
research alliance designed to significantly enhance Nielsen's
ability to more successfully measure television viewing habits among
Latinos in the United States. The agreement, the first of its kind
in Nielsen's 54-year history of television ratings, establishes a
hands-on research program in which an academic team of nationally
recognized Latino social scientists will evaluate and make
recommendations regarding all aspects of Nielsen's television
audience measurement services. This work has begun.

-- Oversampling - The Task Force recommends that Nielsen oversample
persons of color in all LPM markets. We believe that oversampling
represents a very positive opportunity to improve the accuracy of
the ratings among households of color. As such, we have been
working on developing a proposal regarding the best method for
oversampling. We expect to recommend to the MRC that Nielsen be
permitted to oversample households of color and other households for
which there is an important business or social reason. Nielsen is
hopeful for client support for this initiative.

-- Individual vs. household characteristics - Nielsen supports the Task
Force recommendation that, as part of the household classification
process, the race and language of each individual person in a sample
household should be a factor, instead of relying on the "head of
household" or household level characteristics. Nielsen has always
collected language use for all members of the household and used
this information to classify the usage of the household, as a whole.
We recently began to collect race information for every member of
the household, also. Nielsen agrees with the Task Force that these
race and language characteristics should be monitored and adjusted
on an individual basis rather than on a household basis and has
begun a research project on how to best implement this change.
Nielsen will be making a proposal to the industry and MRC regarding
these changes later this year after the research has been completed.

-- "Dynamic Alternate Replacement" - Nielsen agrees with the Task Force
that when initially designated (first choice) households choose not
to participate, matching the replacement (alternate) household to
the first household on race, origin, language spoken, and household
size could improve the representation of those variables. Such a
process may be very difficult to implement in practice, however,
because neighbors don't match on so many variables and Nielsen must
consider the additional variables on which we currently match.
Nielsen is evaluating ways to implement a procedure based on this
premise, will seek input from clients, and expects to make a
recommendation to the MRC later this year.

2. Field Operations

-- Multilingual written materials - Many, but not all, of Nielsen's
recruitment materials are already translated into a variety of
languages. Nielsen believes that the Task Force's recommendation
that all its recruitment materials be translated into Spanish and
the main Asian languages is an excellent suggestion, and we will
implement this immediately. Nielsen also will translate these
materials into other languages, as necessary. Often, however, we
find that just translation is insufficient to improve recruitment
effectiveness, as the message and emotional appeal may vary among
cultures. For that reason, we have already established relations
with cultural think tanks and will continue these and other
partnerships in an effort to go beyond simple translation.

-- Female Field Representatives - Nielsen is sensitive to the role that
gender (and race, language and other characteristics) has in the
relationship between our Membership/Field personnel and people in
sample homes. The percentage of female field representatives has
increased significantly over the past five years, and Nielsen will
examine new recruiting techniques to further increase and retain the
number of female field representatives.

-- Training on Cultural Sensitivity - Over the last three years,
Nielsen has introduced Asian and Hispanic cultural sensitivity
training programs developed in conjunction with UCLA and our Spanish
Language clients. However, the Task Force has made specific
recommendations on how to improve those programs, and in response
Nielsen just added several new training procedures on cultural
sensitivity to its 10-week training course for field and membership
representatives. As part of this expanded training program, Nielsen
will make all reasonable efforts to ensure that its representatives
understand and demonstrate respect for cultures of all the
communities.

-- Privacy Concerns - Nielsen has already dedicated significant time
and effort into developing materials and procedures that address
this issue. We believe that we have one of the best privacy records
in the research industry. However, concerns about privacy present
some of the most difficult obstacles that Nielsen must overcome in
recruiting households. In response to the Task Force's
recommendations, we will give greater emphasis on recruitment
materials to new immigrants and the elderly and review our privacy-
related practice in consideration of possible improvements
specifically directed at certain vulnerable ages and demographic
categories.

-- New Recruitment Strategies - As recommended by the Task Force,
Nielsen will continue to seek out new recruitment strategies for
communities of color. Specifically, we have and will continue to
establish partnerships with important scholarly organizations who
specialize in these techniques.

3. Fault Rates

-- Public Reports on Fault Rates - As suggested by the Task Force, and
in the interest of transparency, Nielsen will begin issuing
quarterly public reports on its progress in reducing fault rates in
LPM markets. Such information will be posted on our web site:
http://www.everyonecounts.tv/.

-- Research on the impact of fault rates - Nielsen provided both the
Task Force and its clients with preliminary research it conducted on
the impact of fault rates. While that research suggested that fault
rates were not causing the changes in the ratings that occurred,
Nielsen agrees that further research should be done by independent
parties on the impact of fault rates on sample representation.
Nielsen plans to create a Technical Advisory Council to provide
scholarly advice on research issues, and we will ask the committee
to review this issue. Additionally, Nielsen will coordinate this
work with its local-client Technical Advisory Committee.

-- Rules on multi-TV households - Nielsen is investigating ways in
which data can be used from households that presently fault because
they do not meet minimum reporting requirements. Such minimum
reporting requirements have, in the past, been reviewed as part of
the MRC accreditation process. If we develop a better set of rules
which can mitigate some of the differences in fault rates, we will
develop a proposal and support its introduction. Nielsen is open to
further suggestions.

-- Person-level training in high-faulting households - Nielsen endorses
the Task Force's recommendation that it participate in one-on-one
training of individuals in households that are at high risk for
faulting. In fact, earlier this year, Nielsen implemented the first
of two personal coaching tests to determine if this would positively
affect fault rates. The information gathered from that test has
already led us to introduce a second test in an effort to accelerate
implementation of this personal coaching technique.

-- On-screen tutorial - Nielsen provides sample households with
extensive training materials and maintains an 800 phone number for
households with questions related to their meters. We have
investigated the possibility of implementing an on-screen tutorial,
but so far this has been incompatible with current metering
technology. Nielsen will, however, investigate other options. We
have, for example, produced a special video that we show to sample
households. This video has met with positive reactions from people
in our samples.

-- Individual incentives - Nielsen agrees with the Task Force that
offering incentives to individuals rather than to the household as a
whole may help reduce fault rates. Earlier this year, we began
software development to permit us to disperse individual checks
during the summer of this year. We have begun to use individual
incentives during the initial recruitment process.

-- Phone service - Households without telephones have higher fault
rates, because it is difficult for our field representatives to
schedule appointments to fix the problem. Nielsen has recently
hired new staff positions which will focus specifically on getting
phone lines in homes that need them. Beyond this and in response to
the Task Force's recommendations, Nielsen will investigate other
creative ways to improve communication with these households.

4. Diversity

-- Independent Review Council - Nielsen will create a council (or
councils) comprised of persons who represent diverse racial/ethnic
communities with expertise in the media industry or research methods
who can provide advice on ways to ensure accurate measurement of
people of color. Nielsen will carefully review the Task Force's
recommendation on this matter and determine the structure and
responsibilities of this council or councils. One such working
group, as mentioned earlier, is the William C. Velasquez Institute,
and Nielsen will make reports from this work available to clients
and to the public.

-- Internal Diversity - The Task Force recommends that Nielsen create a
new "Office of Domestic Expanding Markets" with three functions:
- Creating a culture of diversity within Nielsen Media Research
- Implementing the Task Force recommendations
- Working with the independent review council (above).

Nielsen wishes to be an organization which is exemplary in its staff
recruitment, composition, training and promotion. It is everyone's
job at Nielsen to make sure we can attract and retain qualified
executives of color, and we will monitor this process to ensure our
progress towards this objective.

We will carefully consider if a single function is necessary to
oversee all that the Task Force has recommended, including working
with a review council or councils. But we are open to the idea.

-- Outreach to community organizations - We are especially pleased that
the Task Force recommends the need for expanding and maintaining
these contacts. Over the past year, Nielsen has dramatically
increased its outreach to and support for community organizations
across the country. Over the past year, for example, Nielsen
executives have conducted hundreds of meetings with elected
officials, community groups and community leaders. Nielsen is
committed to maintaining this high level of outreach, and we welcome
input from community leaders.

-- Educational outreach - Nielsen can offer a unique service to
educators and institutions of learning. We agree with the Task
Force's recommendation that such initiatives should be expanded.
For the past several years, for example, we have been working with
the Thurgood Marshall Scholarship Fund and some of its member
colleges to provide more information about how the ratings business
fits into the television business. We also have initiated a Nielsen
U program for client training that we could expand to provide
information to colleges.

Nielsen Media Research has participated in Howard University's Media
Sales Institute for several years and will once again in 2005. In
addition, we have supported the American Advertising Federation
(AAF) by presenting at the first annual National Student Advertising
Conference in November 2004 and as a supplier of research for the
2005 National Student Advertising Competition. Nielsen has also
joined the Broadcast Educators Association and will be participating
in the annual conference in April 2005. We are exploring additional
ways to provide a greater level of support to both teachers and
students.

5. Communications

-- Feedback from field staff - Nielsen recognizes that its membership
and field representatives have important insights into how sample
households feel about the Company and improvements in recruitment
techniques. Since the start of the people meter installation
process, we have conducted focus groups in each LPM market as it was
being brought up. We believe that the Task Force is right when it
advises Nielsen to establish a more formal mechanism that will
proactively reach out to its representatives for feedback on these
matters. We are currently designing such a program.

-- Public awareness campaign - Nielsen agrees with the Task Force that
it needs to be better known by the general public, especially in
communities of color. Our own brand awareness research, which was
conducted two years ago to address this issue, identifies a strong
differential in the awareness of Nielsen by race and ethnicity. To
address this disparity in awareness, we launched extensive
advertising and promotion campaigns last year under the stewardship
of WingLatino. However, these did not prove effective, as we had
hoped. We have also recently implemented a promotional program of
repeated contacts with a household prior to recruitment. It is
still too early to tell if this campaign will be successful, but we
are testing the impact on awareness and will report our findings to
clients and the public. Most recently, we have launched a brand
awareness advertising campaign in LPM markets. This campaign was
developed by Burrell Advertising in Chicago, one of the country's
most respected advertising agencies, and covers a broad spectrum of
media serving communities of color. Television advertising,
however, is not included because the research consensus is that such
advertising could bias our samples.

-- Communications with clients - In a recent letter to clients, Nielsen
acknowledged that it could not remain "business as usual" at the
Company. Nielsen is committed to improving its communications with
clients at all levels. A recent client communication, for example,
outlines many of the initiatives described in this document as well
as many new programs. This is just a beginning in this
communications program.

-- Flexible pricing for smaller agencies - Nielsen recently promised to
review pricing models for all advertising agencies. As part of that
review, Nielsen will consider this recommendation.

-- Annual report on viewing habits among persons of color - Nielsen is
investigating the possibility of producing a top-line report on
viewing habits among persons of color that can offer valuable
insights to clients and the general public. It is important to
note, however, that a number of such reports are published annually
by media buyers and advertising agencies, all based on Nielsen data.
Many of these agencies and clients are minority controlled or
focused, so we must be conscious of publishing data which currently
represents a unique service of current minority clients. Presently,
Nielsen spends considerable time working with such media concerns to
help them verify the accuracy of the data so their reports can be
released in a timely manner. In addition, Nielsen's local market
service (NSI) produces "Ethnic Reports" in May, November and
February for those markets with significant African-American or
Hispanic populations. Nielsen is considering expanding these
reports to include markets with significant Asian-American
populations.

6. Research & Development
-- Independent industry research - Nielsen recognizes the need for the
television industry to have a greater say in the direction of
research-related R&D. Nielsen has already committed to create a
$2.5 million R&D fund for methodological research that would be
directed jointly by the Company and its clients. We will explore
further the Task Force's recommendations on the creation of a
Research Institute funded by private and public entities.

Conclusion - From Nielsen Media Research

Nielsen Media Research appreciates the fine work done by each member of the Independent Task Force. These citizens gave generously of their time and expertise to provide Nielsen Media Research and its clients with a road map to the future. Our task is to work with our clients to implement these recommendations. We also recognize the importance of keeping the public as well as communities of interest fully informed of our progress. We will do that.

This was a Task Force of volunteers, even though the members were modestly compensated for their time by Nielsen and their expenses were reimbursed by Nielsen.

Nielsen is accountable to all of its constituents, both client and public, to implement where possible, and to report on our progress with respect to the Task Force's recommendations. No form of mandatory oversight or regulation could accomplish more than this, and many forms could be far less effective.

Nielsen Media Research sincerely thanks the Chair of the Task Force, former US Representative Cardiss Collins, for her leadership and her diligence. She generously agreed to come out of retirement, to assist us and to provide an outstanding service to the public.

Nielsen thanks the following individual members of the Task Force:
Former Congresswoman Cardiss Collins, Chair
Suzanna Valdez, Executive Director
Mario Baeza
Bob Barocci
John Crump
Reverend James L. Demus III
Ray Durazo
Mary Gonzalez-Koenig
Don Jackson
Bradford Kane
Byron Lewis
Guillermo Linares
Manuel E. Machado
Scott McDonald
Manuel Mirabal
Wallace Snyder
Melody Spann-Cooper
George Takei
Elinor Tatum
Karen Watson
Donald K. Williams

Contact - Nielsen: Jack Loftus 646-654-8360
Contact - Task Force: Suzanna Valdez 646-283-8300

Source: Nielsen Media Research

CONTACT: Jack Loftus of Nielsen, +1-646-654-8360; or Suzanna Valdez of
Task Force, +1-646-283-8300

Web site: http://www.everyonecounts.tv/
http://www.vnu.com/

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