According to HispanicAd.com www.hispanicad.com Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has initiate an inquiry into whether Arbitron’s deployment of its new audience measurement system, the portable people meter (PPM), was undermining the Commission’s efforts to promote media diversity and expand ownership opportunities for businesses owned by people of color. Over the months, there has been a growing chorus of concerns regarding the methodology, deployment and results of PPM from broadcasters, both big and small, including state and minority broadcasters’ associations, independent media ratings companies, state attorneys general, Members of Congress, and the Commission’s Advisory Committee on Diversity. Concerns have ranged from Arbitron’s practices to recruit cell-phone only households to the underrepresentation of racial and ethnic groups on PPM panels and the lack of accreditation from the Media Ratings Council. After initially disregarding these concerns, Arbitron now acknowledges the need for improvements to its new measurement system.
The FCC is prepared to conduct a fact-finding and examination to determine whether PPM is “sufficiently accurate and reliable to merit the Commission’s own reliance on it in its rules, policies and procedures.” If the Commission does not conclude that PPM is in fact reliable and accurate, or if there are still many unanswered questions, the Commission may have to reconsider whether its reliance on Arbitron’s market definitions and audience ratings calls into question the reliability and integrity of the Commission’s own analysis that uses Arbitron information. The Commission may have to also consider whether prohibiting broadcasters’ participation in PPM altogether is in the public interest.
TVNEWSDAY, Apr 30 2009, 3:31 PM ET Today Sunbeam Television Corp., owner of WSVN, the Fox affiliate in Miami (DMA 16) filed a complaint against Nielsen Media Research, Inc. in federal court in Florida, seeking to restore competition in the market for TV ratings.
Sunbeam alleges that Nielsen violated federal and state antitrust laws, as well as Florida’s Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act, by unlawfully maintaining and perpetuating its monopoly in the TV-ratings market.
Sunbeam said that since Nielsen is widely recognized as the dominant provider of TV ratings in the United States and is virtually synonymous with TV ratings, “television stations such as WSVN are left with no choice but to purchase Nielsen’s ratings in order to market air time to advertisers.”
Sunbeam alleges that Nielsen has abused its monopoly position by charging artificially high prices; offering inferior and flawed ratings services in a take-it-or-leave-it basis; and engaging in exclusionary tactics to prevent competitors from gaining a foothold in the industry.
Sunbeam cites Nielsen’s implementation of the Local People Meter (”LPM”) ratings technology in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale market as “yet another example of Nielsen’s ability and willingness to abuse its monopoly position.”
Nielsen’s LPM technology, Sunbeam says, “has been controversial since it was first rolled out because it has been shown to produce flawed data, particularly in ethnically diverse markets. Nielsen has repeatedly been warned by minority groups, the industry accreditation organization and even Congress to take steps to ensure the accuracy of this system, and get it accredited, before rolling it out in new markets.”
And Sunbeam claims that Nielsen “has even acknowledged that fault rates of certain demographic groups participating in Nielsen’s LPM panels, including African-American and Hispanic households, are high. Nonetheless, Nielsen went ahead with a flawed implementation of LPM’s as the sole ratings technology in the Miami-Ft. Lauderdale market — a very urban market — in October 2008.”
Nielsen’s LPM’s, say Sunbeam, “have produced flawed data that, among other things, has failed to adequately count minority groups, a very important component of WSVN’s viewership. The results are unfair to minority viewers, and have had a devastating impact on WSVN’s ratings.”
Sunbeam alleges that Nielsen would not have been able to engage in these practices in a competitive market in which there was a choice of service providers.
According to recently released Goldman Sachs Report on Media Economy/Myers Research List TV, media research innovation is NOT meeting industry needs. No Kidding?!
Quoting the Report:
With hundreds of millions of dollars invested annually by media companies in custom and syndicated research designed to offer marketers insights beyond the basic Nielsen and comScore currencies, advertiser and agency executives remain dissatisfied with the quantity and quality of data being provided by media sellers. Among 90 network television and online media sellers, only five are rated “very good” or “excellent” for providing relevant research insights by 50% or more of 423 advertiser and agency executives surveyed by Jack Myers Media Business Report. The five are USAToday.com, Univision, Nickelodeon, Rainbow Networks (AMC, We), and The Weather Channel.
Univision is perceived as one of the top Networks to be VERY GOOD at providing relevant research to clients?
As a former Univision Sales Executive and Hispanic Marketing Executive since 1997, I can say with some authority that the research that Univision is well practiced in presenting is almost always incomplete and manipulates the U.S. Hispanic marketing story in such a way as to lead to the conclusion that…
1) Most U.S. Latinos prefer Spanish language TV over English language TV.
2) U.S. Latinos and therefore Univision’s audience are much younger than the non Hispanic “general” market.
By digging just a little bit deeper beyond the standard Univision presentation one finds that this is not quite the case at all.
Further Research Reveals
- Most U.S. Latinos are actually U.S. Born, representing over 25 million or over 60% of all U.S. Hispanics, according to U.S. Census Data.
- Watch little or no Spanish language TV. Tomas Rivera research indicates that only 20% of Spanish TV’s audience is made up of U.S. born Latinos.
- Foreign Born or 1st Generation Latinos (Univision’s core audience) actually have a median age of 35 years of age, equal to that of the non-Hispanic “general” market.
In Univision’s “comprehensive” presentations to marketers, you likely won’t find very relevant research about the differences in consumer behavior of U.S. Hispanics based upon nativity (U.S. born compared to Foreign Born).
You likely won’t see research that points out basic facts about U.S. born Latinos, such as:
U.S born Latinos are not only the largest but by far the fastest growing segment of the U.S. Hispanic market
U.S. born Latinos are young with a median age of 18 years of age vs. 35 for Foreign born Latinos
U.S. born Latinos are better educated and more upwardly mobile.
Most notably, U.S. born Latinos DO NOT consume much if any Spanish language TV
Marketers trying to make the most of their advertising spend would probablyappreciate these minor “details,” now more than ever.
Yet all too often, because Univision’s influence on the Hispanic marketing field is so pervasive, they are somehow considered the pre-eminent authority on Hispanic marketing.
Relevant information about the importance of nativity and the impact of U.S. born Latinos doesn’t get through to key decision makers who allocate Hispanic marketing budgets.
The Result is Two-Fold:
1) An overall under-spend for advertising targeted to the U.S. Hispanic market.
2) Of the spending that is allocated, almost 100% of Hispanic TV ad dollars end up going to Spanish language TV, which garners only 40% of the Hispanic market.
A 100% ad spend that reaches the 40% segment of the market that is older, less educated and less upwardly mobile? Talk about a bad ROI?!
If decision makers at these marketing companies in the survey had access to the research on U.S. born Latinos, would they still think Univision is one of the top 5 companies at presenting “relevant” research?
In business as in life, we see what we want to see, hear what we want to hear, and almost always get what we deserve.
Check out the letter below from NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) Head to Nielsen Media Research regarding DTV (digital TV) readiness and Nielsen accuracy (sound familiar?).
If only the NAB concerned itself with the overall accuracy of Nielsens’ research (the low sample sizes that adversely affect specific groups like U.S. born Latinos) rather than specific, cherry picked issues.
Its unbelievable how shortsigted the broadcast television industry is. Don’t they know you can’t reason with a monopoly like Nielsen. Maybe the economy will continue its plunge and will shake up the whole sick media/advertising/research scam.. I mean industry.
His letter from March 11th is below:
March 11, 2009
David Calhoun
Chairman and CEO
Nielsen Media Research
770 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
Dear Mr. Calhoun:
On behalf of America’s television and radio broadcasters, thank you for your partnership and work on the digital television (DTV) transition. Our industry has dedicated more than $1.2 billion to educate consumers about this transition - on top of $5 billion of infrastructure upgrades in the last decade. The Nielsen Company’s research is a crucial element of our industry’s ability to measure viewership.
However, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) respectfully disagrees with your assessment of and methodology surrounding your Digital Television Transition: Update on Digital Readiness of U.S. Households reports distributed each month.
These reports show a stunning increase in action taken to upgrade to digital by over-the-air households, from 9.8 percent “completely unready” last May to 3.9 percent “completely unready” in March 2009.
However, your reports classify as “completely unready” television households that have purchased converter boxes but not yet hooked them up, and households that have a converter box coupon they have not yet redeemed or have applied for a coupon but are waiting for it to arrive. NAB research shows that nearly 40 percent of television households that have purchased converter boxes have not yet hooked them up - a significant number considering that 25,066,732 converter box coupons have thus far been redeemed. Meanwhile, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, nearly 8 million converter box coupons remain “active,” which means households have received the coupons but have not yet used them to purchase converter boxes.
While these households may be technically unready in the strictest sense, it is unfair and misleading to classify them as “completely unready,” especially those that have already purchased converter boxes. This methodology and classification overstates the number of truly unprepared households, and given the weight and widespread dissemination of Nielsen research, these reports can contribute to an unnecessary level of concern that the transition is not going well among members of Congress and regulators at the Federal Communications Commission.
We urge you to change the classifications used in your research, or to at least distinguish between households that neither have coupons nor boxes - the ones we truly need to focus on - and those that have unused coupons and unconnected converter boxes.
We appreciate your time and look forward to working with you in the DTV Transition Coalition, and together with local television stations, to make sure the transition goes smoothly for our viewers all across America.
Best wishes.
Sincerely,
David K. Rehr
President and CEO
DTVAnswers.com : An initiative of the National Association of Broadcasters
On Thursday February 26, 2009, the National Association of Hispanic Journalists held its 20th Annual Scholarship Banquet at the Sheraton New York Hotel. For those who have not heard of this organization, the NAHJ is dedicated to foster Hispanic involvement in the news industry as well as expanding news coverage of the Latino community in the nation. Ever since its funding in 1984, this organization has awarded more than $1.5 million dollars in scholarships to 550 Latino aspiring journalists.
The banquet had 300 plus attendees which included latino journalists, media executives, journalism students, members of the latino business industry as well as members of the arts community. The event started with a reception in which numerous well known figures of the journalism industry mingled and socialized with other attendees. Some of the names we came accross with were Jorge Ramos, Senior News Anchor of Telemundo 47, Adhemar Montagne, Anchor of NY1news and John M. Quinones, Anchor/Correspondent of ABC news. John Quinones mentioned his new ABC series, What Would You Do? A series that deals with daily ethical dilemmas faced by individuals and the steps people take in response as well as the solution that should be taken. He was also quick to mention the launch of his book, “Heroes Among Us.”
Followed by the reception was the banquet in which Maggie Rodriguez, Co-Anchor of CBS’s The Early Show, served as the Mistress of Ceremonies. Various other names came up to the podium to express their message to the Latino community as well as to express their gratitude to the donators who have helped in bringing forth the scholarship fund. These names include the President of NAHJ, O. Ricardo Pimentel, Juan Gonzalez, Staff Columnist of the New York Daily News as well as the Banquet Chair, and the Keynote speaker given by Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Lin-Manuel Miranda is the composer/lyricist of the best musical of 2008, In The Heights, which he started writing when he was a sophomore at Wesleyan University. His popularity has come as a result of the great work he accomplished in representing the struggles of the Latino community through his now famous musical, In The Heights. Lin-Manuel Miranda focused on expressing his own perspective and concerns about the Latino community, him coming from a struggling puerto rican family but being born in the U.S., which as he mentioned, automatically put him in the midst of clashing of cultures and the behavioral aspects of his surroundings. His play, hence its title, takes a setting in uptown Manhattan (a.k.a. The Heights) where there is a huge concentration of Latinos and where the lives of this community can be jotted down to the closest proximity of reality. Some of his remarking prases to the Latino community included “Do what you love and love what you do” which to him, served as a motivation for him finally accomplishing what he wanted to be in life, a composer and a lyricist as well as a good piece of advice to all those who are presently struggling to define themselves within a career.
Miranda went on to mention that “Nothing can be taken for granted, as your dreams will never be handed to you,” with this quote he implied that what you wish to see in the world will never be perfectly accomplished by anyone else but you, as you are the dream holder and you are the only one who can turn your dreams into reality.
These motivational speeches were clearly a representation of how Latino communities unify in an attempt to help each other in accomplishing their goals. The event did not only offer aspiring journalists/students a message that will help them in pushing through any obstacles, but with the tangible help of scholarships offered by individuals like Juan Gonzalez and Soledad O’Brian, who just added their names to the list of donors, in an infallible quest of bringing the Hispanic community to its peak.
More information about the NAHJ can be found at www.nahj.org.
