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People meter sweeps local TV

Will Nielsen's new way of counting local viewers mean better television year-round?

By Eric Deggans, Times TV/Media Critic
Published October 4, 2007

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It's a dream I've had for many moons now. And I know from letters and e-mails, it's a fantasy many of you share.

The death of "sweeps."

For those not familiar with the unique patois of the TV industry, "sweeps" months are periods in which local stations use viewership data gathered by Nielsen Media Research to figure out what they will charge for advertising.

And because TV ratings in November, February, May and - to a lesser extent - July are so important, stations and networks cram these periods full of attention-getting programming.

Nationally, it meant Brad Pitt played a guest spot on then-girlfriend Jennifer Aniston's hit comedy Friends during sweeps. Locally, WTSP anchor Reginald Roundtree showed you how to escape a car plunged into Tampa Bay during a sweeps month long ago.

It can leave you feeling like you're watching a different station four months out of every year. And it all may go the way of the dodo bird and compact discs for one reason: the Local People Meter.

Today, Nielsen begins a new way of counting who watches local TV outlets and when, allowing stations to get that information every day - not just in the sweeps months.

"We've been heading toward this direction anyway - let's just put out the best news product we can every day," said Pete Nikiel, director of marketing and promotion for area CBS affiliate WTSP-Ch. 10. "As of today, we're entering a world where every month is the same as any other."

It's a local TV revolution that most viewers will never notice. But make no mistake, in boardrooms across the Tampa Bay area - the country's 13th-largest television market - executives are wondering how these new ratings figures will affect their share of a TV advertising pie that totaled more than $351-million in 2006.

"There's always been something odd about putting out your best stuff in the same three or four months every year, anyway," said Brendan McLaughlin, top male anchor at ABC affiliate WFTS-Ch. 28. "(But) it's so entrenched a routine, people are reluctant to break away entirely."

Here's how it works: Previously, Nielsen determined who was watching TV shows locally by asking a select group to fill out paper diaries noting everything that everyone in the household watched. The "sweeps" moniker came from the way diary booklets would sweep across the country during ratings periods.

With local people meters, sample households have equipment attached to their television sets transmitting back to Nielsen electronically what shows the machine is tuned to.

Residents press buttons on the meter showing when they watch - yes, there are extra buttons for guests - and all the data are uploaded to the company's giant processing center in Oldsmar.

Nielsen has long maintained this technology is more accurate, because people are immediately registering when they watch a show, rather than writing out a diary after the fact. And it's a serious priority: Already, markets such as New York, Chicago and Washington use the system, which Nielsen expects to expand to 70 percent of all TV households by 2011.

"We can more truly reflect what is going on," said Nielsen spokeswoman Anne Elliot, noting that diary homes might forget to write that they surfed on a channel for 15 minutes.

But on the question of whether sweeps stunts will vanish, Elliot was a little less optimistic: "There may actually be a nonstop fight for viewers and a nonstop battle to do big stories all the time," she added.

That's a view echoed by Cherie Wenstrom, a vice president and media director at Tampa's Wenstrom Communications, who noted one local station was reacting as if sweeps starts today - pushing for high-profile stories throughout October and November.

"News viewers here are not easily swayed," she said, adding that the enormous amount of political advertising expected before the 2008 election will also change the market. "Hopefully, it will all come down to better broadcasting."

Experience offers a few predictions: Market leaders tend to lose viewership while cable channels and niche stations gain a bit. Viewing by younger people might improve, because they're more willing to push a button than write in a diary.

Still, even though the new system measured total TV viewership increases in some markets, stations saw ratings losses for many newscasts. In February 2006, Washington's WJLA station saw 60,000 viewers disappear from their 5 a.m. show compared to the year before, according to the Washington Post.

"All of a sudden, people who have cable TV weren't watching our news," said Bill Lord, vice president of news at WJLA, saying Nielsen may have concentrated its local people meter sample in upscale neighborhoods. "In a market which has 70 percent cable penetration, it's hard to believe that. . . . It appears they may have reduced the impact of poor people across our market."

Years ago, TV networks resisted the system. Fox even bankrolled an advocacy group concerned that the system undercounted minorities, sparking congressional hearings. But times have changed.

"Stations have grudgingly accepted this is the more realistic way of doing business," said Shari Anne Brill, a senior vice president at the New York media buying firm Carat. "It forced Nielsen to open itself up to more scrutiny, and now you've got customers involved in really looking at what's going on."

Still, sweeps is a stubborn concept. Because the networks and syndication companies give stations money for advertising in sweeps months, local viewers will still see radio and billboard ads for shows such as Dr. Phil and CSI during those periods, Nikiel of WTSP said.

And one local station, WMOR-Ch. 32, will stop using Nielsen figures altogether until the dust settles.

"We'll wait, and if the service delivers, we'll get involved," said WMOR general manager Ken Lucas.

But most stations are tied to using the TV industry's currency - a set of viewership figures produced by one company.

"Nielsen still has the monopoly, so when they decide to take this technology to the market, we have to go with it," Nikiel said. "It's a little scary . . . but we just have to wait and see how it shakes out."

Eric Deggans can be reached at (727) 893-8521 or deggans@sptimes.com. See his blog at blogs.tampabay.com/media.

[Last modified October 3, 2007, 16:12:34]

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