Thank you for inviting me to testify before you today.
I am concerned about Nielsen Media Research's plan to roll out the new Local People Meters (LPMs) in the New York City media market. Many unanswered questions must be addressed before moving forward to implement the LPM system in New York City.
Under pressure, Nielsen agreed to form a task force with
Congressman Charlie Rangel, but as of yet, to my knowledge, no meeting has been held, and other task force members have not been
announced.
The problem with Nielsen's new LPM system is that it records huge drops in viewership of minority programming compared to similar samples using the old system.
When the LPM system was test-marketed in New York City in
February, top-rated primetime programs among New York City African- Americans--like The Parkers--saw unexplained drops in viewership of up to 60%. Similarly disturbing drops were seen in Spanish- language programming with both Univision and Telemundo suffering abrupt declines in ratings gauged by LPM's compared to ratings gauged by the current system.
Nielsen's own research shows that LPM technology may undercount African-American and Latino viewers by 25%. Nielsen has offered no explanation as to why African-American and Latino programming were so negatively affected, while programming geared towards
predominantly white audiences was either not affected at all or
affected positively. And Nielsen has never made any effort to
test the accuracy of Local People Meters in an ethnically diverse, racially mixed, urban market
There are many questions that still need to be answered:
Why did the new system have such a negative impact on shows predominantly geared towards African-American and Latino viewers?
Are certain demographic groups less likely to accurately use this technology to report viewership?
Are younger viewers less likely to accurately report? And if so,
how are they skewing the numbers?
What are Nielsen's plans to train people on the use of the new
technology?
How does the viewership get recorded?
Implementation of this new technology in a city as diverse as New York has the potential to disproportionately undercount African- American and Latino viewers, which may lead to cancellation of numerous programs targeted towards minority communities. It would also have a chilling effect on advertisers looking to reach African-American and Latino viewers and ultimately compromise efforts to encourage greater diversity in TV programming.
With so many issues still left to be addressed, I request an
explanation of how the new LPM technology functions and its
potential impact on minority viewership.
The minority population of New York City has been undercounted in the past. There is the example of Census undercounting of minorities, especially in the Bronx, resulting in a loss of government aid and legislative representation. I fear that undercounting by Nielsen would be yet another case of the minority community of New York City getting shortchanged.
Nielsen has said that it will use the extra two months before the expected June rollout to consult the public, examine its system, and find solutions to ensure that all populations are counted. Nielsen must take the time to conduct a full and thorough investigation of the impact of the LPM system on a large, ethnically and culturally diverse urban market.
The task force must meet, the questions must be answered, and the technology must be changed if it does not accurately reflect viewership before any roll out of the LPM system in New York City .
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