- Originally published in Los Angeles Times on June 3, 2004
Copyright 2004 Los Angeles Times
Political Opposites Costar in a TV Ratings Drama;
Murdoch's News Corp. and a minority coalition seek to delay new system for counting viewers.
By: James Bates and Meg James, Times Staff Writers
After
operating largely out of the public eye for half a century, the company
measuring the number of people who watched "Law & Order" on
Wednesday night is unwittingly starring in its own drama.
For weeks, Nielsen Media Research has been pummeled publicly by a group dubbed the Don't Count Us Out Coalition,
which is made up primarily of Latino and African American advocacy
organizations opposed to the TV rating firm's plans to modernize how it
measures viewing habits.
"If the Nielsen
company gets their way, some of our favorite TV shows could be
canceled," says a recorded telephone message sent by the coalition
intended for black households in New York. "That is why the NAACP has
called on Nielsen to stop and get their act together before they
miscount us again."
But what the message
-- and a daily barrage of other statements issued by the group --
neglects to say is who is funding the campaign. The answer: News Corp.,
one of the nation's largest media conglomerates, whose Fox television
stations stand to lose tens of millions of dollars from the Nielsen
changeover.
In fact, what makes the coalition most extraordinary is the way it unites political opposites as bedfellows.
At
the helm of News Corp. is Rupert Murdoch, who has used his media empire
to push a political agenda embraced by conservatives. Yet it's
Democratic politicians and activists who are the coalition's public
face.
"Most of the people who are aligned
against Nielsen here would not normally be allies with Fox -- and
that's putting it mildly," acknowledged coalition consultant Mark
Fabiani, a former top Clinton administration aide who once denounced
Fox News as "an avowed enemy."
The Don't
Count Us Out campaign aims to delay Nielsen's efforts to launch today
in New York and next month in Los Angeles a system that uses electronic
boxes and push-button devices to record what TV programs people watch.
The setup is designed to replace antiquated handwritten diaries that
have been used since the 1950s to establish TV advertising rates.
Critics
contend that black and Latino households have long been undercounted as
part of Nielsen's sample audience. The fear is that the new system will
make the problem worse.
"There are always
clients who have questions about their ratings, but it's never gone
from that to this whole firestorm," said Susan Whiting, Nielsen's chief
executive. "And that is clearly related to News Corp.'s influence and
money."
The stakes are high all around.
With advertisers steering as much as $25 billion a year in business to
local TV stations, "a ratings point here and there makes a difference,"
said S.G. Cowen media analyst James Marsh. "Anytime you change a system
of measurement, there will be winners and losers. And the losers are
going to fight, scratch and claw to make sure they don't lose too much."
For
its part, Nielsen plans to charge clients a comparatively high fee for
the electronic system, which provides daily ratings information. (It
declined to provide details.) The old diary arrangement, by contrast,
collects viewer data just four times a year during "sweeps" months.
The
minority community groups involved in Don't Count Us Out say they are
far from pawns of News Corp. -- even if the corporate giant is
bankrolling the campaign, estimated to cost $2 million to $5 million.
In some cases, they note that they have had problems for years with
Nielsen's sampling.
"Did Fox recruit me?
No," said Lorraine Cortes-Vazquez, president of the New York-based
Hispanic Federation and a leader of the coalition. "I can't be any
plainer than that."
News Corp.'s Gary
Ginsberg said it was ludicrous to suggest that coalition members such
as the Hispanic Federation and 100 Black Men were being exploited.
"The notion that they would be doing our bidding is laughable and an insult to the legitimacy of their concerns," he said.
What's
more, News Corp. is not the only major media company that has problems
with the Nielsen system, which is dubbed the "people meter." On
Wednesday, Viacom Inc.'s CBS urged Nielsen to delay its rollout of the
service until it can ensure that its sample is truly representative of
all parts of the community.
"The world
would not end" if Nielsen waited, said Ceril Shagrin, head of research
at Univision Communications Inc., a Spanish-language network. "Nielsen
is the only source of audience estimates. And when you only have one
source for the data, that source needs to do whatever it can to make
sure the estimates are accurate."
Still,
even TV executives who believe that the Nielsen sample has some
problems are grousing about what they see as News Corp.'s heavy-handed
tactics. One industry insider called News Corp.'s actions
"unconscionable," expressing worry that demonizing Nielsen will make it
even tougher to recruit blacks and Latinos into the sample.
The
Media Rating Council, an industry group that has found flaws with the
new system, also made clear that it "condemns the use of public
campaigns" by "a Nielsen client" -- a thinly veiled reference to News
Corp.'s backing of Don't Count Us Out.
So
aggressive is the effort that at one point, Nielsen's phones and e-mail
crashed after being overloaded with complaints stirred up by the
campaign. This week, one TV spot airing in New York provides a
toll-free number to protest the people meter rollout. Callers are
routed directly into the office of CEO Whiting.
The
fight has taken on a degree of brinkmanship. Nielsen has rejected calls
to postpone the introduction of its new system until December. It has
offered as a compromise to keep the diary system in use -- alongside
the people meter -- for three months. But Don't Count Us Out isn't
letting up, threatening legal action Wednesday.
The
Nielsen-News Corp. rift goes back to early this year, when preliminary
people meter data suggested that viewership for Fox's local TV stations
was lower than previously thought.
Fox-owned
stations, including its UPN affiliates, air a relatively large number
of shows geared toward African Americans. Fox says its ratings decline
proves that blacks are being undercounted in the people meter sample.
Nielsen says the decline suggests that many black viewers have simply
migrated to cable channels such as Black Entertainment Television,
which has seen its ratings soar. BET endorses the people meters.
In
late February, News Corp. requested a meeting at Nielsen's offices in
Manhattan's East Village. About the only thing the two sides agree on
is that the session took place.
On one
side of the table were News Corp. President Peter Chernin and Murdoch's
32-year-old son, Lachlan, who is in charge of the lucrative Fox station
group. News Corp. says the two men asked for Nielsen to delay the
rollout of the new system until problems with the sample could be fixed.
Nielsen's
chief executive, Whiting, recalls the meeting differently. She says
Chernin threatened Nielsen, telling her, "We will stop you. We will
discredit you." News Corp. denies making a threat.
Within
a short time, both sides were mobilizing high- powered public relations
firms and political consultants. Nielsen retained Robinson Lerer &
Montgomery, which has handled "crisis management" for troubled
companies such as Tyco and Adelphia. It also tapped Bill Lynch, an
African American and former New York deputy mayor.
News
Corp. took its case to Glover Park Group, a Democratic consulting firm
whose partners include Clinton White House Press Secretary Joe
Lockhart, former top Al Gore aide Mike Feldman and Howard Wolfson, who
served as communications chief for Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate
campaign.
They quickly found a spokesman
in Alex Nogales, president of the National Hispanic Media Coalition. He
has long criticized Nielsen and has felt not the slightest unease about
allying with News Corp. -- even though he has bashed it, as well, for
contributing to the media industry's rapid consolidation.
"We
come at it from a nonprofit point of view; they are coming at it from a
monetary point of view," Nogales said. "We are shoulder to shoulder
with Fox but for very different reasons."
A
company headed by another Clinton White House press secretary, Mike
McCurry, registered the domain of the Don't Count Us Out website.
Glover
Park then hired Fabiani, who in turn recruited longtime Los Angeles
City Hall lobbyist Maureen Kindel. She persuaded local politicians such
as City Councilman Bernard C. Parks to blast Nielsen.
In
late March, Don't Count Us Out troops marched on New York's City Hall.
"That was the first big kaboom," Whiting said. "Then letters began
pouring in."
Days later, Whiting attended
a small industry gathering to discuss interactive TV. Sitting across
from her was Rupert Murdoch, who was intent on talking about another
topic: people meters. According to one person in the room, Murdoch was
aggressive and accused Nielsen "of trying to ruin their business."
The
confrontation was followed by Don't Count Us Out news conferences, an
ad blitz, more rallies, intense lobbying on Capitol Hill and, according
to Nielsen, disproportionate coverage of the dispute by Fox.
Although
Nielsen is determined to move forward with the people meters, some say
News Corp. has definitely hurt the firm's reputation. Nielsen, said
Lynch, has "lost the spin war."