Regulating the ratings
AC Nielsen, a division of information giant VNU, is a prime gatekeeper in American television, essentially a default monopoly in one small area. Its rating system, based on monitoring a cross-sampling of US households, rates the relative popularity of TV programs, and therefore determines what the advertisers are willing to pay for advertising on them.
Nielsen is aware that its methods, based on a time before digital video recorders and channel surfing, are less than accurate. So the company has been trying to update its written, voluntary logbook system with new technology and new sampling methods that record actual behavior minute by minute.
No surprise, any rearrangement will lower some program ratings and increase others. Most loudly complaining is News Corporation, which owns the UPN and Fox networks. Ratings on both networks are down under the revised sampling system, and News Corp, is screaming foul to the US Congress, whose Republican majority is strongly supported by the Fox News network and other News Corp. media.
News Corp., in spite of its right-wing orientation, produces lots of shows which by black and Hispanic audiences. These shows have shown big drop-offs with the new system. New Corp. is naturally calling the changes unfair and discriminatory. So Congress is now considering a bill that would make it impossible for Nielsen to change the way it measures ratings without approval from an independent outside board.
As the US legislative journal The Hill (8/10/05) explains:
At issue is a move by Nielsen Media Research to use an electronic system rather than a written diary to measure viewing habits. This year's plot twist is a bill News Corp.'s lobbyists helped write that would regulate Nielsen for the first time and, the ratings company says, potentially prevent it from using its digital system in big local TV markets.
"Helped write" indeed. One needn't wonder who would be on the panel. On the other side is VNU and also several national groups of advertisers. Both sides are lining up high-priced lobbyists and public relation firms. It is interesting that the free market/small government crowd is so eager to regulate when the profits of an ally is on the line.
