Nielsen's Brave New World

摘要

Paul Donato has spent much of the past year passionately defending Nielsen's TV ratings against charges that they under-represent minority viewers in big cities. But it's what the chief research officer of Nielsen Media Research has not been talking about that really excites him. Donato, a 52-year-old lifelong number-cruncher, has been concentrating on the future of television itself and a myriad of science-fiction-worthy ways he plans to measure it. The electronic gadgets and systems envisioned by Donato—"talking meters" and artificial intelligence—represent entirely new ways of thinking about how people view television. At press time, Nielsen was expected to announce it will spend $2.5 million to fund independent, third-party research as part of a consortium to develop better TV-rating methods. Nielsen researchers are expected to be involved, but the budget would not be controlled by Donato, who would continue to pursue Nielsen's own R&D efforts.