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The Evolution -- and Revolution -- of Meters

Of the many valuable lessons from the Century just past, none is more clear than the value of technologies with staying power. Some of the major successes of the 20^th Century grew out of brilliant designs that were continually improved over time. 

Today’s data collection systems from Nielsen Media Research, including metering and software technologies under development, can keep pace with hundreds of channels– broadcast or cable, analog or digital, satellite or terrestrial, PC or TV delivered– scanning every channel every 2.7 seconds to accurately report the tuning status of every television set within the sample. It can use the conventional phone line to download data, or it can use cellular. The data are then transformed into the “overnight” ratings and are reported the next morning. Art Nielsen would have marveled at the technology, but he would have been right at home with the process.

System for Success

What does all this mean for our People Meter customers? First, the audience research service continues, through trial and innovation, to provide the television industry with a unique commercial measurement advantage over rival media. Second, these innovations have resulted in a shift in control over the data from the research supplier to the user by providing unprecedented access to more complete, more timely information for buying, selling and programming decisions.  Bottom line: Advantage Television.  

Continuous Improvements

The data collection, processing and delivery systems soon to be demonstrated in Local People Meter markets did not magically appear fully formed, untested and with no performance record. Since the introduction of the Audimeter for television audience measurement in 1950, the ratings system has been subject to continuous third-party audits, validation analyses and, as a result, changes. Our own research experts and engineers have made extraordinary advancements. We want to provide you with information about how far we've come in the evolution of audience measurement since the first commercial test of a new invention called the Audimeter in Boston in 1935. That test was organized by two MIT professors, and paid for by John Shepard, then owner of Boston radio station WNAC.

That turned out to be the easy part. Turning the Audimeter into a viable data collection tool for radio audience measurement was no slam dunk. Nielsen embarked on a long (13 years) and expensive R&D effort to improve the Audimeter, and it was not until 1949 that Nielsen had succeeded in re-engineering the Audimeter into a national sample capable.

Audilogs for Demos

Once it became possible to determine the number of households tuned to a given program, the next challenge was to determine the demographic composition of the audience. In 1953 a separate sample of diary households was added to the service. Diary homes were recruited for three years, metered homes for five years. The paper diaries were called Audilogs, and information from this sample was reported in the National Audience Composition (NAC) report. The NAC measurement period was 39 weeks. Each week one-third of the diary panel reported their viewing data. Of the 26 bi-weekly NTI Pocketpiece reports each year, NAC diary data were included 19 times.  

The Recordimeter also provided a measurement basis for rejecting diaries that materially overstated or understated tuning as measured by the Recordimeter. (The diary keeper jotted down in the diary the number of set-tuning minutes recorded by the Recordimeter.) The Recordimeter seemed to have its desired effect -- in 1981, 89% of the installed national sample returned usable diaries.

It collected the set-tuning data on a minute-by-minute basis and fed the information instantaneously to Nielsen via a dedicated phone line in the home. The IA was used only for local ratings, while the Mailable Audimeter continued to be used in the national sample. 

A key element in data collection is program identification. Beginning in 1977, Nielsen Media Research began testing a technology that offered a crucial breakthrough in network lineup verification called the Automated Measurement of Lineups (AMOL), which led to more accurate reporting of program lineups.

This technology allowed Nielsen to track an identification code within locally transmitted TV signals for network and nationally syndicated programs (now including cable). The service became fully operational in 1984.

The currents of change in the '70s and '80s produced at least three significant shifts which affected the accepted currency:  First, the cooperation rates in both the meter and diary samples were declining; second, the basis for audience guarantees shifted from household ratings to demographic segments, which meant that advertising dollars were much more dependent on the diary portion of the national system; and third, by 1978  Nielsen Media Research was conducting its first field test (in Tampa, Florida) of a pushbutton people meter, a data collection device that would change the course of television audience measurement.

While the People Meter quickly proved to be a superior methodology, a year after its introduction the system was subject to a highly critical-- and constructive-- review by the three-network consortium called CONTAM (Committee on Nationwide Television Audience Measurement). The multi-volume report stands as a benchmark, unsurpassed in its analysis and on its impact. The report led to a major quality initiative by Nielsen Media Research, which continues today. The CONTAM review again demonstrated Nielsen Media Research's commitment to opening its system to constructive evaluation. In its report, CONTAM noted "the willingness of Nielsen management to submit its equipment and procedures to sometimes microscopic examination, and to commit its staff to respond to seemingly endless questions and demands from the examiners. The Nielsen management commitment was wholehearted."

Between 1950 and 1970, the national service was subjected to several independent validation studies which served to build trust in the system and the audience estimates it generated. The Advertising Research Foundation assembled a blue ribbon panel in 1953, and its report essentially endorsed the national meter-diary methodology. Between 1964 and 1970, the three NY-based broadcast networks commissioned a series of validation studies of the NTI-NAC meter-diary system. These were some of the early examples of Nielsen Media Research working with its customers to improve the service and build trust.

One of the specific benefits of the CONTAM report was a renewed effort by Nielsen Media Research to improve sample quality, beginning with cooperation from the initially designated household. Door-to-door recruiting among a sample which is a  cross-section of America (or a single market such as Boston) can be a challenging prospect. The real research need is for active and responsible continuing participation from respondents.

In 1993 Nielsen Media Research began a major methodological research effort to learn how to improve cooperation rates within the National People Meter sample.  More than a dozen separate studies exploring cooperation issues and recruitment techniques were conducted.

Their training included a number of "core principles" of Membership which focused on building relationships with persons in the sample, and emphasizing "volunteerism."

The results of Membership have been impressive: initial and ongoing cooperation rates in the National People Meter homes rose substantially in the mid-1990s to the highest levels in the history of the service. The challenge, of course, is to keep up the good work, and to obtain those same high levels of cooperation among active, responsive participants in Boston through our Membership recruitment program. (We will have more to say about our Membership recruitment program in Boston in the future.)

Yes, we’ve certainly changed the technology under the hood of the meter, but we haven’t changed what stands behind it. Art Nielsen wanted a measurement method anchored in the most advanced technology, removed from human subjectivity and uncertainty. At the same time, it is important to recognize that accurate and reliable audience measurement is not just a matter of having the right technology. It is equally a matter of embedding that technology in a rigorous and scientifically based system of selecting samples, gathering information, interpreting it, and sending it in the most useful fashion to customers.

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