Nielsen Out-Of-Home

"The Nielsen Co. has begun to get some traction for its newest research services that are designed to analyze TV viewing beyond the traditional home-bound TV screen. In a first-of-its kind agreement announced Thursday, Zenith Media Services has signed for three new Nielsen services, becoming the first subscriber to the Nielsen Out-of-Home Report.

Set to launch next month, the Out-of-Home Report is a joint service of Nielsen and Integrated Media Measurement that uses a cell phone-based methodology to track TV viewing outside the home in bars, hotels, airports and other locations. "




"Most Lost fans have a favorite character, or even a few favorites. Now all of the Locke fans, Kate admirers, and Ben disciples can settle their differences--March Madness-style. Since March 7th, the Washington Post has been hosting Lost Madness, a bracket-like poll to determine the best all-time Lost character."

Lost and Moonves

Thanks, Amy, for the Lost recap.

"So more lies and more coverups, people. Some are speculating that maybe Jin is still back on the island, presumably with the other survivors, but given that this gravesite visit was a private one, I’m guessing that Jin is really, truly dead in the future.

The question is: What happened to him? And why did Sun have to lie about him dying in the crash?

And, oh yeah, WHO THE HECK ROUNDS OUT THE SIXERS?!? Is it indeed Claire’s son, Aaron? Or were the writers teasing us, and is another member yet to be revealed? Producers Cuse and Lindeoff have some explaining to do…"




"Speaking at the Bear Stearns Media conference in Palm Beach, Fla., CBS CEO Les Moonves said he's surprised by Rupert Murdoch's slowdown comments. If CBS has seen any ad sales drop, he says, it's been offset by political spending.

On the eve of the Hulu launch, Les also criticized his competitors' attempts to go online, though he didn't call anyone out by name. He said he doesn't want to see just a regurgitation of programming on the Web. CBS should put interactive programming on the Web, not just replays of TV shows. This sounds an awful lot like what CBS digital boss Quincy Smith has been saying.

Three to four years from now we'll have $750 million in digital revenue primarily from CBS properties spread out across the Internet.

Online is going to grow in leaps and bounds, but certain things work better in certain mediums. Says he doesn't want the Internet to just be TV on a smaller screen.

Psychologically people are saying that Showtime is the new HBO."

Charter Goes Nielsen

"The Nielsen Co. has struck a deal with Charter Communications to analyze set-top box data from 330,000 homes in the Los Angeles area, the parties said today.

Nielsen has similar agreements with other undisclosed MSOs but the Charter deal goes a step further in that it licenses the ratings company to also create ratings reports from the data that it can then sell to clients. Nielsen said such reports would be available to clients starting in the second quarter of 2008. Adweek is a unit of Nielsen.

Charter struck a similar deal in November 2006 with Nielsen competitor TNS Media Research, which sells reports based on the Charter set-top box data to clients via a syndicated package it calls TotalView. Publicis Groupe's Starcom was the first media agency to sign up and other buyers and sellers of TV time have signed up since then.

Set-top box viewing data has attracted a lot of interest from agencies and their clients who are looking for more detailed analyses about the TV viewing patterns of the consumers they reach with ads. Set-top box data has the potential to offer more detail because it offers a second-by-second look at how viewers watch, as opposed to the minute-by-minute view offered by the current Nielsen national ratings service."

Stand and Fight

Jericho: Episodes and Clips

"Using DVR and TiVo does help. Remember CBS shows are advertiser supported shows and so skipping though commercials means the advertisers can more easily ignore you. On the other hand they can’t tell if you’re off making a quick snack or got up to let the dog out. Ratings track how far after the air date a show is viewed and the sooner the better. When possible try to watch in the first three days, and failing that within the first seven.

Online viewing of episodes has CBS’ attention (and the Jericho writers actually get paid for them now). Episodes and clips can be viewed here.



SciFi Channel shows confidence in Jericho by turning over this Friday’s lineup to Jericho.

Starting at 8/7c this Friday SciFi airs Jericho for four full hours of primetime programming. The episodes start with Rogue River, Crossroads, Red Flag, and end with Vox Populi.

Nielsen Monopoly and Sampling

""The digital set-top box represents the Holy Grail for marketers; a virtual treasure-trove of TV viewing data -- if it can be effectively harnessed.

It could also mean the end of Nielsen Media Research's monopoly over the $600 million TV ratings business, if TNS, Comscore, ErinMedia or a host of other startups have their way.

An example of that is the skirmishes with Florida-based ErinMedia, which has developed technology it believes will make the concept of a "Nielsen Family" obsolete.

The company is in the middle of an antitrust suit against Nielsen in which it argues Nielsen's longterm, staggered contracts with media companies prevents others from entering the ratings market."
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"Mistakes in Sampling
And there are mistakes. Mistakes that have forced advertisers to lose money. Nielsen has acknowledged, for example, that in Los Angeles that fault rates for Hispanic households have been 27% higher than the rest of the sample. Audits by the Media Rating Council also found that Nielsen’s local people meter system used in New York failed to record viewing data from over 25% of African American homes in the sample.

I have only come across three people who were invited to be a part of the Nielsen family through People Meters and diaries used during sweeps period. All three admitted that with their busy schedules and viewing patterns it was hard to know what they actually watched. In addition, they often forgot to write down what they watched and decided to simply fill in the blanks with their favorites. One couple with a People Meter was on vacation and kept their television on PBS during their whole vacation in hopes of helping the non-commercial station.

In an effort to please advertisers and critics, Nielsen has been doing a few things that it believes are making them a little smarter. While its efforts can be applauded, some of the steps remained flawed."

Bringing Back The Monster: Season 3

" Bringing new life to the monster."

"Save season 3 initiatives are starting to spring up for Jericho. In chat rooms, on message boards and through private message the call is sounding throughout the Jericho fandom to be proactive and act before any decision is made about the show. There are a number of fantastic resources we can visit or revisit as we think about which tactics we personally will employ to keep our show alive."



"Welcome to the News & Information Update site for the New Home 4 Dresden Petition & Campaign!"