So, did you see where a number of media companies and some top advertisers have committed millions of dollars to develop their own multi-media ratings measurement system?   They have even brought in a few advertising heavy hitters this time around - top-spender Procter & Gamble, as well as third-place spender AT&T, plus Unilever.  Others, of course, have announced plans before to try to topple the elitist Nielsen monolith  - and failed miserably.

The new consortium, which includes Time Warner, CBS, Viacom, NBC Universal, Disney and Discovery put out the standard line that they are not “out to replace Nielsen.”  Yeah- I’m sure that’s the case.  Why would you want to come up with your own system instead of paying Nielsen millions and millions of dollars so they can ignore your concerns?

There is a new driver this time though - the consortium says there is “no single source measurement for TV and digital video.”  Nielsen, of course, responds they are working on this with it fully operational by 2011.  Ah, huh! 

The new consortium hopes to have their ratings measurement system up and running by the fourth quarter of 2009.  They plan on using set-top box data and cross-platform viewers who use both TV and digital video.

As always, it will be an interesting battle to watch.  Can someone finally topple the monopoly that is NSI?   A monopoly, by the way, that uses a national sample of a whopping (he writes facetiously) 18,000 homes!

But there is a hidden message that all local TV broadcasters should be picking up on.  The goal is to marry a way to measure BOTH television viewing, and to gain a more accurate measurement of all the portable devices that deliver video today - and the many more that will deliver it in the very near future.

If you are not providing, or working on a plan, to put your local news on all these devices - than the big advertisers will only be measuring your station on its broadcast signal - and you will be missing out on not only thousands of viewers/users of your product - but all those precious advertising dollars as well.

That big ole portable device train is roaring down the tracks - has it already passed you by?

Jim

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