Set-top monitors to track when viewers
leave—and when Tivo users fast-forward
New York, NY – Beginning this November, Nielsen Media Research will track how many viewers are watching television commercials for the first time across the United States.
Many broadcasters and advertisers alike are buzzing about the potential for a fall in the cost of television ad time. According to the Wall Street Journal, industry observers project significant ratings drops to appear during ad breaks, hastening the shift of media funds toward new media.
"If I was a buyer, I would be taking the stance of, 'Quite frankly, what you said you were delivering, you weren't,'" ad buyer Bruce Goerlich said. Goerlich, executive vice president at ZenithOptimedia, told the Journal that he expects prices to go down.
The new ratings process will reportedly calculate the average number of viewers for the total number of national commercial minutes airing during a program. The procedure will not measure individual spots or time slots.
Using 10,000 set-top monitors currently in use within domestic households, Nielsen will check what viewers are watching several times per minute. The units are able to detect channel changes and fast-forwarding through commercial breaks via digital video recorders.
When viewers leave the room in which their monitored television sits altogether to go to the kitchen or elsewhere, Nielsen has provided a separate monitor for recording absences. The research company maintains that over 90 percent of its panel of viewers follow through with this procedure, according to a company spokesperson.
In spite of the new viewer information and issues to be revealed—such as exactly how many people really are blazing past commercials with TiVos—some television executives, such as NBC-U Television Group chief Jeff Zucker, do not expect much downward pressure on ad revenue.
"The bottom line," Zucker said, "is that there is still no better way to reach a mass audience."
J. Bolden