News Broadcasting
Nielsen hit by antitrust lawsuit in US
MUMBAI: US television ratings provider erinMedia and television network ReacTV have filed a antitrust lawsuit in a US District Court against Nielsen Media Research.
The plaintiffs contend that Nielsens monopoly over television ratings has resulted in a distorted view of what millions of Americans are watching and deprives them of a voice in determining what programming stays on America’s airwaves.
The suit seeks to end Nielsens monopoly over television ratings research by, among other things, voiding Nielsens staggered long-term contracts with TV networks and other customers and allowing these customers to take advantage of new interactive set-top box technologies that supersede Nielsens outmoded sampling methods and allow for the counting of every viewer.
erinMedia chairman and CEO and ReacTV founder and CEO Frank Maggio argues that TV networks, advertisers and the American public are all poorly served by Nielsens antiquated methods.
“The American television industry represents not only $60 billion in advertising dollars, but is a $250 billion business that serves 109 million households. Yet today, when service operators can easily capture viewer preferences in a privacy-protected manner, Nielsen still relies on only 7800 of those households to produce national ratings. We believe that the ratings market needs to be opened up to new methods that allow the use of data from every television, every second of every day.
Maggio cited the negative effects of Nielsens monopoly, including wasted advertising dollars, the cancellation of undercounted TV shows, the under-representation of minority viewers, and the homogenisation of American television programming.
It is commonly known that an estimated 10 to 30 per cent of TV advertising is wasted, because Nielsens inaccurate ratings do not allow effective targeting of viewers who might actually buy the advertisers products. Thats $6 billion to $18 billion in wasted ad expenditures that add to the cost of consumer products.
“And until we take advantage of universal data capture from digital set-top boxes, minorities and other viewers will continue to be miscounted, and many of viewers favorite programs will continue to be cancelled. Thats not just monopolistic its anti-democratic.
Set-top data can be gathered today from the 25 million US households that have advanced set top boxes, Maggio noted. As analogue cable and satellite subscribers migrate to these two way boxes, the potential exists to count the votes of more than 85 million households. Nielsens methods largely rely on the self-reported viewing habits of a small sample of recruited and coached viewers. The resulting ratings are presented as fact and do not include error estimates or confidence intervals.
“The other recent alternative is Arbitrons Orwellian Personal People Meters, which are clipped on peoples clothing and measure a persons behavior every hour of every day. Neither is acceptable in our society. Its time to use the digital technology we have today to capture channel changes on a second-by-second, privacy-protected basis.
erinMedias methods, in contrast to Nielsens, use the data captured from digital set-top boxes, of the kind increasingly used by cable and satellite TV networks, to measure second-by-second the choices of every viewer. Individuals personal information is barred from access by erinMedia and the viewing data is captured by the service provider. Demographics are appended to the summarized data using sophisticated mathematical analysis obtained from a second source.
Nielsen has control over every aspect of the ratings process, from data sampling to data collection to data analysis. That allows too much influence and control by a single entity, and the potential for data manipulation by the highest bidder. What America needs instead is a system in which TV networks control access to their customers, a second company captures the data through set-top boxes, and a third company analyzes it Maggio says.
The suit specifically requests, among other things, that the Court award injunctive relief to end Nielsens unlawful monopolisation; that all of Nielsens long-term, staggered contracts immediately become invalidated; and that Nielsen be denied the ability to continue anticompetitive practices such as purchasing its competitors.
Maggio says, The American way is about innovations that let people express their individual preferences. .We dont want to replace Nielsen. There is plenty of room for two players or more. What we do want is a level playing field that allows us and any other players to take advantage of digital technology to reflect the preferences of 25 million people or more as inclusively as possible.
erinMedia is a media research company that focusses on understanding television audience behaviour in all its forms cable, broadcast, satellite, linear, non-linear, and interactive. erinMedia’s methodology combines privacy-compliant tuning data collected from advanced set-top boxes with independently gathered demographic data to produce insights into audience composition and viewing behavior.
With over 135 patent-pending claims, erinMedia states that its proprietary technology produces accurate and timely analysis without the use of personally identifiable information. erinMedia brings experience and expertise in mathematical analysis, statistical modeling, and software development to the science of television audience research.
ReacTV claims to be Americas first creative media production company to develop reactive television programming. ReacTVs patented technology enables interactive gaming networks, where viewers at home compete for prizes, simply by watching and reacting to their TVs. ReacTV has exclusively licensed the patented CRAV Reactive Ad System. This allows broadcasters, publishers and sponsors to create a new level of consumer awareness through reactive advertising.
News Broadcasting
CNN-News18 to air live counting day coverage for five state election results on May 4
The channel is rolling out its biggest election coverage machinery yet for results day on 4th May
NOIDA: The votes have been cast. Now comes the reckoning. CNN-News18 is pulling out all the stops for results day on 4th May, when counting begins across five battleground states — West Bengal, Assam, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and the Union Territory of Puducherry — in what promises to be one of the most closely watched electoral verdicts in recent memory.
The channel’s coverage, titled Battle for the States: The Verdict, kicks off at 7am and runs through the day across linear TV, connected television and YouTube. It is the culmination of CNN-News18’s multi-format editorial initiative, Battle for the States, which has tracked the polls from the beginning under the theme Road to Power.
At the operational heart of the coverage will be the Live Results Hub, the channel’s central command centre built to collate, verify and process real-time data flowing in from reporters stationed at counting centres across constituencies. The hub combines newsroom intelligence, analytics and on-the-ground reporting to deliver what the channel promises will be the fastest and most accurate results coverage in English news.
Leading the on-air charge will be primetime anchors Rahul Shivshankar, Anand Narasimhan, Aman Sharma, Nabila Jamal and Shivani Gupta. They will be joined by a wide panel of commentators including author Chetan Bhagat; GVL Narasimha Rao, senior leader of the BJP; Smita Prakash, editor of ANI; activist Saira Shah Halim; political analyst Sumanth C Raman; Abhijit Iyer Mitra, senior fellow at IPCS; Amitabh Tiwari, founder of VoteVibe; columnist Abhijit Majumdar; Nalin Mehta, managing editor of MoneyControl; political analyst Tehseen Poonawalla; senior journalist Subir Bhaumik; and political analyst Manojit Mandal.
Shivshankar, who serves as editorial affairs director at CNN-News18, set out the stakes plainly. “Counting day is one of the most watched events in the electoral cycle, where speed and credibility are tested in real time,” he said. “Battle for the States: The Verdict is built on that promise, combining ground reporting, sharp analysis and cutting-edge election technology to give viewers the clearest and fastest route to the verdict. On May 4, CNN-News18 will once again be the nation’s most trusted channel to witness democracy in action.”
Smriti Mehra, chief executive of English and Business News at Network18, framed the coverage in broader terms. “Elections are defining national events, and audiences turn to brands they trust in moments that matter,” she said. “CNN-News18 has consistently led from the front in every election coverage, and this special programming reflects the scale of our ambition and editorial strength.”
The channel has form here. It claims to have been India’s most preferred English news destination for election results for the past 20 years, covering everything from the 2024 general elections to the Delhi, Maharashtra, Bihar and BMC polls on the back of what it calls an “Always First, Always Right” record. Five states, one day, and a nation waiting for answers. The clock starts at 7am on 4th May.
