Hispanic TV Stations Sign With Nielsen

Two major Spanish-language broadcast companies today said that they have signed a contract with Nielsen Media Research to test ratings “people-meters” in 200 Hispanic households in the Los Angeles area.

If all goes well, Nielsen officials said, a national survey with the viewer-activated meters--to be called the Nielsen National Hispanic Television Service--will start in 800 Hispanic households in the latter half of 1990.

The companies signing the contract are the Telemundo Group Inc. and Univision Holdings, which own Los Angeles stations KVEA-TV and KMEX-TV, respectively. No specific price for the contract was disclosed. Nielsen said it was a “multimillion-dollar” contract.

‘Untapped for Advertising’

“The Hispanic market is rapidly growing and largely untapped for advertising,” Peter Roslow, Telemundo’s marketing director, said in a statement. He said that the data gathered from the new service “will provide a more precise portrait of Hispanic viewership.”

About 4,000 homes in the U.S. now have have people-meters, which became the industry standard for ratings in 1987 and provide instant data, including age and income, on who in a participating household is watching a given show.

The aim of the test in Hispanic homes, Nielsen said, is to “evaluate the procedures to be used in recruiting Hispanic households to participate in the rating service.”

L.A.-Area Test

The Los Angeles-area test will begin later this year, with people-meters to be installed in homes in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Ventura, Orange and Riverside counties after a Nielsen recruiting drive that will start in mid-September.

An estimated 4.3 million Hispanic and Hispanic-descent residents, or about 30.5 % of the total population, now live in those counties.