New York -- Nielsen Media Research affirmed its support Friday of a move by television networks to seek improved audience rating methods, although that research ultimately could undermine its monopoly position in the field.
Nielsen said it is 'pleased' to cooperate with the hiring of a New Jersey firm by ABC, CBS and NBC to establish a TV ratings laboratory to test new ratings technologies.
The networks disclosed Thursday they have retained Statistical Research Inc. of Westfield, N. J., to set up a multi-million dollar research effort to find an alternative system to Nielsen-style ratings, which have been criticized as innacurate. Ratings determine charges for lucrative TV commercial advertising.
Gale Metzger, president of Statistical Research, said his firm already is testing new ratings devices in five New Jersey counties and will conduct a wide-range test in 1995.
Nielson President John Dimling said, 'Nielsen has an obligation to all users of television to provide the best possible audience measurement service.'
'In this spirit, we are pleased to accept an invitation to work with the (networks') Committee on Nationwide Television Audience Measurement (CONTAM) to explore ways to improve measurement and reporting of TV audience behavior,' he said.
Dimling noted that Nielsen, a division of Dun & Bradstreet, has a research laboratory of its own in which it is 'testing new metering and data collection technologies,' and he insisted the continually improving Nielsen system is working 'very well.'
Nielsen announced recently that its sampling of 4,000 families nationally as a basis for its TV ratings will be increased to 5,000 families this year.
Nielsen is the nation's only TV ratings system. Arbitron, which rated both radio and TV shows, withdrew from the television field late last year.
Broadcasters have voiced concern that the Nielsens include too many families who subscribe to cable TV, about 67 percent of the company's weekly sampling. Only 62 percent of the nation's families buy cable service. This could cause inflated cable ratings, to the detriment of the networks.
CONTAM Chairman Nicholas Schiavone, an NBC vice president, said that although the industry spends a great deal of money for audience measurement, 'It is unthinkable to be locked into yesterday's systems to measure tomorrow's audiences.'
David Poltrack, CBS's senior vice president for reserach, said bluntly that he hoped development of a new ratings system would encourage more companies to get into the field.
'We see this as easing the process where there will be competition,' he said.
