2 Companies Measure the Latino TV Market : Two TV Broadcast Companies Seek to Measure the Latin Market

Two major Spanish-language broadcast companies said Tuesday that they’ve signed a contract with Nielsen Media Research to test “people meters” in 200 Latino households in the Los Angeles area.

If the test goes well, Nielsen officials said, a national survey with the viewer-activated meters will start in 800 Latino households in the latter half of 1990.

The companies signing the contract are the Telemundo Group Inc., which owns KVEA-TV Channel 52 in Los Angeles, and Univision Holdings, which owns KMEX-TV Channel 34 in Los Angeles. No specific price for the contract was disclosed, although a source close to the deal said it was about $38 million.

“The Hispanic market is rapidly growing and largely untapped for advertising,” said Peter Roslow, Telemundo’s marketing director. 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 United States now 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.

Spanish-language broadcasters have long maintained that Latino viewers are under-represented in national Nielsen samples.

A Nielsen spokeswoman said the new service wouldn’t affect those national audience surveys. It is a separate sample of only Latino homes, she said.

The aim of the Los Angeles-area test, Nielsen said, is to “evaluate the procedures to be used in recruiting Latino households to participate in the rating service.” It 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 Latino residents, or about 30.5% of the total population, now live in those counties.