Truth, Lies and Media”

According to the industry website ShellyPalmer.com Big Media companies are working on an alternative to Nielsen media.
ABOUT TIME! I wonder if the weak economy and the pitiful shape of TV’s business has anything to do with this?

See the link below:

http://www.shellypalmermedia.com/2009/08/14/big-media-companies-team-to-take-on-nielsen-mediabytes-with-shelly-palmer-august-14-2009-3/

July 20, 2009

To: Phil Mushnick

NY Post Television Columnist

From: Robert G. Rose

Phil,

As you may remember, I try to follow your column and typically enjoy your critique of the television industry, an industry I’m growing more and more embarrassed with being associated with.This past Sunday’s (July 19^th) article was no exception; you were dead on about the Michael Jackson opportunists (Sharpton, Jessie Jackson, etc.) and the rapid race to the bottom by the TV industry in general.

You left out one important fact, Rupert Murdoch (your employer and NY Post Owner) set a new low for the TV industry immediately upon arrival from Australia when launched the Fox Network with such gems as “Married With Children”, “In Living Color” and the “Tracy Ullman Show”, all dragging the broadcast TV industry to places it had never been before, namely, the bottom. Today, Fox Network continues this tradition of whatever sells, but now, unfortunately, it has lots of company.  

There are still some good shows out there but I rarely read about them in the NY Post (I did recently read a review on HBO’s “Hung” however).

As a matter of fact, the New York Post is the ONLY major market newspaper that never, EVER, not even ONCE gave our syndicated TV shows “American Latino TV” & “LatiNation” any coverage in over 7 seasons (Sundays @ 3PM on WWOR-My9) despite numerous accolades from other newspapers and awards for excellence in representing positive portrayals of U.S. Latinos on mainstream, English language TV.  

I stand corrected, that one time about a year ago; you mentioned one of our shows “LatiNation” when you somehow linked a segment of a young Latino artist who painted LEGAL graffiti art on tennis shoes as vandalism… must have been a slow TV news day.

Fact is, as you criticize the filth on TV, the NY Post encourages it and your parent company has done as much or more to contribute to it than any other media company.

If you really want to address and change the “race to the bottom” that is the TV industry, try recognizing good quality television programming like the many hours of programming on networks like PBS, The Travel Channel, Discovery and more (POV, Globe Trekker, No Reservations, etc.).

I suspect you don’t do this for the same reason TV has become a repository of our lowest societal values, it might not sell as well.  

I respect your writing and wit but I also see through the hypocrisy.   

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.

To read about Notice of Inquiry CLICK on link below:
<http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/FCC-09-43A1.pdf>

Sunbeam Suing Nielsen over LPM Ratings

 

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 1^st 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 probably  appreciate 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.