It must be nice having a (de facto) monopoly. Nielsen is the big dog in the audience measurement game. The company's ratings are the currency of the TV industry. Plus, Nielsen measures just about everything else and is toying with brain wave measurement.
Well, now the company is in trouble with its clients because its ratings numbers have repeatedly been delayed, including a well-publicized delay after the Super Bowl. Nielsen took the unusual step of writing a letter to its clients, explaining that the numbers may be delayed until March when a new computer system is up and running. It doesn't help Nielsen's image that its main technology center is located in Oldsmar, Fla. Yet, with no other measurement system to turn to, the TV folks just have to grin and bear it.
Meanwhile, Nielsen shrugs and apologizes. "I don’t think we did as good a job as we should have in anticipating these spikes (in different measurements)," a Nielsen exec said. Translation: We know you can't shop anywhere else, so you're just going to have to suck it up.
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