DCUO Launches Nielsen Oversight Campaign

WASHINGTON As Nielsen Media Research prepares to launch its local people meter service in Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. on June 2, Don't Count Us Out is gearing up for the next phase in its campaign to bring independent oversight of NMR.In a Monday press conference marking its one-year anniversary, the coalition said it would launch an advertising campaign and a new Web site called "Recommendation Watch." The site will track Nielsen's progress towards improving minority TV measurement as outlined in the report from the Task Force on Audience Measurement. "A year ago we requested improvements [in how the LPM service measures minorities]. Today, largely due to our efforts, many of the improvements we requested a year ago appear in the task foce report," said Cynthia Jasso Rotunno, executive director of DCUO. "Without the coalition efforts, the task force and its report would not have existed today."While Nielsen said last month it would implement many of the task force report's recommendations, the coalition remains skeptical since Nielsen has rolled out four of its five LPM markets without full Media Rating Council accreditation."This fight continues to be about oversight," said Josh Lahey, campaign manager for DCUO. "The LPM problem needs to be resolved, faulting needs to be resolved. But they're all symptomatic of a larger problem: Nielsen is an unregulated monopoly."Despite DCUO's efforts, the Federal Trade Commission didn't see it that way and last week declined to step in and regulate the TV ratings. DCUO was disappointed, but not deterred in its lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill. "If it gets resolved by the industry, that's great. We don't want a bureau of advertising ratings. But there have been examples in the past where Congress gives FTC the authority," said Lahey, who cited the recent example of the Do Not Call Registry.Don't Count Us Out's advertising campaign will begin this week in trade publications such as Adweek, published by VNU, the parent of Nielsen, as well as in Roll Call and other congressional publications. It will also take out ads in local minority-targeted media in Washington and Philadelphia. The ads were created by Washington-based The Glover Park Group.The Media Rating Council, which took issue with the coalition's consumer advertising last year, is nervous about the consumer advertising that may appear in online Web sites. "It could be very damaging to what they're trying to elicit. I don't mind Roll Call, but to put something in the general press and online is not a good thing. It hurts the very situation they are tying to improve," said George Ivie, executive director of the MRC. "Nielsen is trying hard to install the proper representative households."Don't Count Us Out coalition members also addressed claims that it was merely a front for News Corp., which has been providing financial support to DCUO. "The News Corp. argument is a red herring. The issue of undercounting still remains, the impact on communities still remains. The fact that their interest coincides with ours is wonderful. But to focus on this as a corporate side fight is a side battle," said new coalition member Gilbert Casellas, president of Casellas & Associates and a former EEOC chair and former co-chair of the Census Monitoring Board."It's frequently the case [in civil rights issues that questions change to funding, instead of why people are being denied access," added Richard Willis, CEO and executive producer for Mozell Entertainment Group. "It's important to put this in context. Stop talking about the management of the fight rather than the fight."

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DCUO Launches Nielsen Oversight Campaign

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