ErinMedia Files False Advertising Lawsuit Against Nielsen Media Research

ErinMedia Files False Advertising Lawsuit Against Nielsen Media Research

ErinMedia Chairman Intimates Interest in Acquiring and Changing Nielsen

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla., Jan. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Television ratings company erinMedia today filed a second lawsuit in U.S. District Court against Nielsen Media Research (NMR), a subsidiary of Netherlands-based VNU, for False Advertising and Unfair Trade Practices. ErinMedia is already embroiled in a landmark antitrust lawsuit with NMR, where in November, erinMedia received a favorable ruling in NMR's attempt to have the court dismiss this suit.

The False Advertising suit revolves around a full page ad placed in the October 24, 2005 edition of Television Week, among others. In the full color advertisement, the bold print headlines claim: "Thousands of shows ... millions of different viewers ... Nielsen counts them all." The suit specifically requests, among other things, that the Court award relief to end Nielsen's false advertising practices; that Nielsen stop dissemination of this advertising and promotional material; that Nielsen publish corrective advertising; and that the Court award erinMedia punitive damages for Nielsen's intentional, willful, and malicious conduct.

"At issue is Nielsen's increasingly desperate effort to mislead the American people, and our television and advertising industries, into believing that their Truman-era company can use Reagan-era technology to count almost 300 million 21st century Americans," states Frank Maggio, Chairman of erinMedia. "As a first generation American, I consider the concepts of voting and counting to be almost sacred, and I am outraged that the Nielsen leadership would ever allow an ad like this to be published. Nielsen's president, Susan Whiting, stood before the Senate last summer and stated that Nielsen is in 'the truth business.' We beg to differ. The truth is they don't count millions of different viewers -- they don't even count 9,000 households in their national sample!"

Maggio's company, erinMedia, uses technology that would enable tens of millions of Americans using advanced digital set top boxes to be counted. "In reality it is erinMedia, and NOT Nielsen, that can literally count millions of Americans, but the Nielsen monopoly has kept our technology from being adopted by the TV industry," states Maggio. "Instead, Nielsen continues to stifle competition and innovation, and now we have clear evidence that their propaganda machine uses false advertising to effectively brainwash its constituents into keeping the Nielsen monopoly entrenched. By doing so, the voices and choices of tens of millions of Americans continue to be ignored each and every day."

Frank Foster, President of erinMedia, cites misconceptions of Nielsen's purported and overstated accuracy as a hindrance to penetrating and modernizing the marketplace. "Their ad's misrepresentations are harmful to erinMedia's ongoing efforts to educate the industry, and their claims are patently false. To be accurate, the ad headline should read: 'Thousands of shows ... millions of different viewers ... but only around 9,000 recruited and paid Nielsen households actually count.' "

The False Advertising suit precedes a volatile period for NMR and their parent company, VNU, amidst speculation that VNU will either be sold, or will be selling many of its assets, including Nielsen Media Research, by as early as March of this year. Maggio predicts that 2006 will be a year of massive shakeups at NMR, "perhaps only slightly less volatile than the TV industry itself." The erinMedia Chairman sees his company as a central figure in any repositioning: "If one of the rumored consortiums of U.S. investment companies is indeed able to acquire control of VNU's assets, I am prepared to line up the financing to acquire and change Nielsen -- and the leadership responsible for stifling innovation and driving their propaganda machine." Concludes Maggio, "A newly-owned Nielsen would ultimately expedite television rating innovations, while bringing value to its constituents, and providing true representation to tens of millions of Americans that Nielsen today only falsely claims to count."

For more information about this lawsuit, please visit http://www.weshouldallcount.com/ .

About erinMedia:

ErinMedia, LLC, is a privately-held media research company focused on understanding television audience behavior in all its forms -- cable, broadcast, satellite, linear, non-linear, and interactive. ErinMedia's methodology combines privacy-compliant tuning data collected from advanced set-top boxes with independently gathered demographic data to produce insights into audience composition and viewing behavior. With over 135 patent-pending claims, erinMedia's proprietary technology produces accurate and timely analysis without the use of personally identifiable information. ErinMedia brings experience and expertise in mathematical analysis, statistical modeling, and software development to the science of television audience research. For more information, please visit http://www.erinmedia.net/ or call 941.739.4500. ErinMedia is an entity of The Frank Maggio Companies. For more information on The Frank Maggio Companies, please visit http://www.frankmaggio.com/ .

Source: erinMedia, LLC

CONTACT: Dawn Dixon, Communications Director, erinMedia,
+1-727-776-0025, or dawn.dixon@erinmedia.net

Web site: http://www.erinmedia.net/
http://www.frankmaggio.com/
http://www.weshouldallcount.com/

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