TV Networks Seek Changes in ‘People Meters’

The three major networks on Wednesday released a 600-page study that urges changes in the way the A. C. Nielsen Co. gathers national ratings data, but they said it’s not a bid to reverse their audience losses.

In a key recommendation, the study, paid for by CBS, NBC and ABC, calls for a reduction from two years to one the length of time viewers involved in Nielsen’s national “people-meter” audience sample are asked to participate.

The 2-year-old system, now in 4,000 homes, requires each viewer in participating households, as he or she starts watching TV, to press buttons on devices that either are hand held or atop the TV set.

The devices indicate who is watching and what. The data is translated into not only raw numbers that become program ratings, but also demographic information that advertisers seek.

Made with the cooperation of Nielsen officials, the study of the people-meter system found that “button-pushing fatigue” sets in before the end of the two-year period.

The study, costing more than $1 million and done by Statistical Research Inc., also found that more than half those asked by Nielsen to participate declined.

“I would say unquestionably the cooperation rate . . . is the biggest challenge,” David Poltrack, CBS’ senior vice president for research, told a news conference at ABC headquarters, where the study was released.

The report, suggesting ways to improve cooperation, also urged a joint industry study of ways to measure viewing by children under 6. It also urged that Nielsen appoint an “ombudsman” whose sole job would be to set and monitor research standards.

The report was prepared for the Committee on Nationwide Television Audience Measurement, founded in 1963 by the three networks and the National Association of Broadcasters to study television audience measurement.

Network officials have said that introduction of people meters, which became Nielsen’s standard system for national audience estimates in 1987, caused a total 6% drop in network shares of audience in their first year of use.

With the growth of cable, and videocassette usage up, total network shares of audience in prime time, nearly 90% only 10 years ago, now are in the low 60% range.

Although the networks expect that to stabilize in the mid-1990s as cable penetration in the U.S. levels off, they’ve been scrambling to find viewers.

The stakes are high. According to one former top network executive who declined to be named, a prime time ratings point now is worth as much as $140 million annually.

But the study wasn’t done to try increasing network ratings and, in fact, doesn’t even mention network ratings, Alan Wurtzel, ABC’s senior vice president for research, said Wednesday.

Its recommendations for improving audience measurement would benefit the entire industry, including cable and advertisers, he said.

John Dimling, executive vice president of Nielsen Media Research, praised the study as “an outstanding effort” and said that “the key, I think, is that the system is good, but can be improved.”