by Dave Zornow
Published in the Cynopsis:Weekender, 1/13/06
Last week was tough for Nielsen. And that follows a difficult December. In the last 30 days, clients and processors have received an email blizzard of reissues and changes. It’s all occurring as clients begin to see the first trickles of new DVR data streams. Is it possible that Nielsen has bitten off more than they can chew?
These predictable growing pains could have been avoided if a more reasonable schedule had been adopted. So why didn’t that happen?
Despite the fact that there is very little to be learned about DVR behavior in 2006, Nielsen offered clients live, same day and live + 7 day data this year. This effectively tripled their workload with little or no incremental revenue in return. It also impacted customers, pushing back daily, weekly and monthly product deliveries.
Nielsen could have spared themselves the strain and the expense of three streams by imposing a compromise solution. For example, if the “streams” for live and seven day were pushed back a year and these data were only available for special analysis in 2006, Nielsen could have saved a ton ‘o money and delivered the most meaningful data to clients faster and the other data later.
Why would a monopoly suddenly forget how to say “no?” In one word: Fear.
Although the “Don’t Count Us Out” coalition didn’t succeed in blocking local people meters, they did impact the way Nielsen conducts its business. If being blindsided by a grassroots effort didn’t get Nielsen’s attention, two sets of congressional hearings certainly did.
Nielsen responded by improving people meter recruitment efforts and funding an industry Council For Research Excellence group for conducting methodological research. Additionally, Nielsen’s decision making process is more cautious and they have changed how they address divergent views inside and outside the industry. But all of this doesn’t come without costs.
The moral: Be careful for what you ask. The new data has created a lot more work for everyone and virtually no new value for anyone. Before complaining about later data deliveries, systems straining to keep up with new data and longer hours required to crank out the same reports, remember that Nielsen is not the only party to blame. #
Dave Zornow is President/TNG Research, a media research consultancy and applications development company that works with media sellers and research providers.
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