Nielsen caught in full-spin zone: TV ratings outfit growing ambitious

04 October 2007, By BRIAN LOWRY , Variety.com

“Nielsen has never enjoyed mediating intramural disputes or slapping clients around for distorting its data. Still, inasmuch as the ratings are not just the industry’s currency but serve as a cultural barometer of popular taste, everybody suffers when bogus inferences and dubious spin float into the ether — making the numbers look more untrustworthy, and feeding the suspicions of conspiracy-minded yahoos already convinced that black-suited government agents are seeking to deprive them of “Jericho” or “John From Cincinnati.”

The irony is that Nielsen deserves kudos for a new plan to expand its sample size — tripling the pool to 37,000 homes and 100,000 people by 2011 — recognizing the need for more info to adequately reflect a fragmented audience. As it stands, if a few loyal Nielsen-monitored Food Network or Golf Channel viewers leave town the same week, the network’s ratings can plummet….” [more]