Nielsen fights back.Nielsen Media Research Inc., the company that provides ratings and demographic information for television audiences, is mounting a public-relations counteroffensive coun·ter·of·fen·sive n. A large-scale counterattack by an armed force, intended to stop an enemy offensive. Noun 1. counteroffensive to charges that its new local people meter The People Meter is a device and system used by Nielsen Media Research in the USA to allow a relatively passive measurement of the viewing habits of TV and cable audiences. The people meter was invented by a British company called Audits of Great Britain, or AGB for short. system undercounts minority audiences. Nielsen executives recently met with African-American and Latino leaders to discuss the people meters, which collect real-time data Real-time data denotes information that is delivered immediately after collection. There is no delay in the timeliness of the information provided. Some uses of this term confuse it with the term dynamic data. about television audiences. The people meters came to Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. last summer as a replacement for the former diary system. Critics of the people meter system say that African-American and Hispanic households tend to view shows together so the new meters undercount un·der·count tr.v. un·der·count·ed, un·der·count·ing, un·der·counts To record fewer than the actual number of (persons in a census, for example). true viewership. Nielsen denied the charge and supplied early ratings for KMEX (Channel 34), KVEA (Channel 52) and two other local Spanish language stations showing that in aggregate their viewership was up 5.5 percent in the 8-11 p.m. time slot in May compared with the same period last year. So far, Nielsen hasn't appeared to make much headway. A spokesperson for Don't Count Us Out, a coalition of Nielsen critics, said that based on the initial data it's too early to conclude the system is working. |
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