An Inside View

摘要

As the controversy over Nielsen's new local people meter (LPM) grows, testi-mony by a former Nielsen employee raises serious new questions about the accuracy of the research firm's ratings technique. In a suit filed earlier this month in Los Angeles, broadcaster Univision included a declaration from a senior vice president who was a key executive at Nielsen for nearly three decades. In the little-noticed document, Ceril Shagrin details the flaws in Nielsen's new service in intricate detail. The 24-page declaration is one of the latest headaches for Nielsen, which has been under pressure to address concerns that its new LPM ratings system, set to roll out in the top 10 TV markets, under-counts minorities. Last week, an audit leaked to the press revealed that Nielsen misidentified the ethnic and racial composition of homes in its New York household sample-the second market behind Boston where Nielsen, has introduced the new ratings meter.