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
Times Network to air JVC Exit Poll across 5 regions on April 29
Four-hour broadcast spans states and Puducherry with data-led analysis
MUMBAI: Times Network is set to roll out what it calls one of its most expansive election programming efforts yet, culminating in the JVC Exit Poll on 29 April, with a multi-hour broadcast spanning key poll-bound regions.
The exit poll will air across Times Now and Times Now Navbharat, beginning at 5pm and 4pm respectively. Co-powered by Vedanta and Jindal Stainless, the programming aims to combine on-ground reportage with data-driven projections across West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Assam and Puducherry.
The network has deployed over 50 journalists across these regions, gathering voter sentiment and local insights in the run-up to polling. The effort builds on its ongoing election formats such as Election Yatra and Election Premier League, which have tracked campaign narratives and community-level issues.
In parallel, Times Now Navbharat has focused on constituency-level reporting in West Bengal through its Jan Gan ka Mann series, capturing voter opinions across diverse segments.
The coverage has also featured interviews with prominent political leaders. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan and Congress leaders Ramesh Chennithala and V D Satheesan have appeared on the network’s election specials. From Tamil Nadu, voices including deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, DMK MP Dayanidhi Maran, BJP leader K Annamalai and NTK’s Seeman have also featured in discussions.
On the day of the exit poll, the network’s primetime anchors, including Navika Kumar, Zakka Jacob and Sumit Awasthi, will lead the coverage. They will be joined by a panel of political analysts, psephologists and senior journalists offering real-time insights and interpretation of trends.
The programming will integrate grassroots reportage with analytics from the JVC Exit Poll, aiming to give viewers an early sense of electoral outcomes ahead of the official results on 4 May.
With its combined English and Hindi broadcast reach, Times Network is positioning this effort as a comprehensive look at voter sentiment, blending field reporting, data and debate to decode what could lie ahead when the final mandate is revealed.
