The tracker behind the tube
When Susan Whiting, CEO of Nielsen Media Research, wants to relax, she watches television. That would hardly be worth mentioning were it not for the fact that TV, or more precisely who's watching it and when, is the single biggest source of stress in Whiting's life.
When Whiting took the top job at Nielsen in 2002, she knew there would be a steep learning curve, even though she had been at the company for 26 years. The television universe is changing rapidly. There are multiple sets in every home, not to mention gyms, bars, and other locations. Devices like TiVo are rewriting the book on tracking viewership. And Nielsen, whose ratings influence how $60 billion in TV ad dollars are spent each year, must try to stay one step ahead of an audience that is getting harder to keep track of at every turn.
Controversy. "I knew there would be more change in the next five years than there had been in the previous 50," says Whiting, 48. "I knew there would be a lot to learn." What Whiting didn't anticipate, however, was that her education would include dealing with a well-coordinated campaign to put Nielsen's latest measuring device, the Local People Meter, and the company itself, on trial.
The meter is an electronic set-top box now being used in cities like New York and Los Angeles to measure local television audiences. The devices are much more accurate than both earlier boxes and the written diaries that have been used since the 1950s to record viewing. The TV industry favors the technology behind the meters because it produces more-detailed information on audiences. But minority groups and some networks charge that the meters undercount minority viewers, which leads to lower ratings on certain shows and lower ad revenues for networks, such as Fox and Spanish-language Univision, with large minority audiences. They have come together in Don't Count Us Out, a group funded in part by Fox that represents more than 100 advocacy groups for minorities. And they have been making life miserable for Whiting, who has been on a nonstop public-relations mission, at a time when she expected to be boosting Nielsen's fortunes by selling new products for measuring TV audiences.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Al Sharpton, for instance, barreled into her office recently, flanked by a CNN camera crew, to accuse her of "racial insensitivity." Rupert Murdoch went berserk at the mention of Nielsen's name and ripped Whiting in front of network executives. And she was grilled by a Senate subcommittee trying to determine whether Nielsen, a monopoly, needs government oversight. The controversy has put Nielsen, a company little known outside of TV, onto the front pages. "I never thought I'd see the day when we would be picketed," says Whiting. "This has been a damaging and unexpected attack."
Now, after months of defending the meters in forums across the country and working with minority groups to refine the sample, Whiting is winning some converts, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Jesse Jackson's Rainbow Coalition, and Black Entertainment Television. And with advertisers embracing Nielsen's new ratings, Whiting may finally be able to shift her focus back to measuring audiences instead of appearing in front of them.
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