After thinking more about last week’s column, I left something out. It was so much fun to find a connection between Nielsen Audio and the Kardashians that, even with some solid questions to ask your Nielsen rep, something else may have been overlooked.
The reference is to Nielsen Audio’s change to reuse samples in the diary markets. Nielsen followed the rules in terms of informing the client base. A release was sent informing subscribers of the “enhancement” allowing me to craft a Kardashian analogy. Nielsen also included the change in the Presurvey Bulletin, which is a Media Rating Council (MRC) requirement and must be published prior to the start of the survey.
For many years, this has meant publishing the document on the day before the start of the survey period. While the Presurvey Bulletin is not exactly gripping reading, it’s usually very short and if you are a Nielsen subscriber, you can find it in the portal. Separate ones are issued for PPM (the day before each survey “month” starts) and for diary (each quarter).
Unlike some of the online chatter I’ve seen, I did not condemn Nielsen for the change. I raised some questions and perhaps just a bit conspiratorially, suggested that Nielsen’s new private equity overlords were looking for ways to cut costs. Nonetheless, I’m still holding back on any negative pronouncements.
What I do want to see from Nielsen is the study that shows what may happen when some households are used multiple times in the survey. One of the requirements of the ratings business is that methodological changes are tested in advance to find out how the estimates (your ratings) will differ from the standard methodology. Long ago, Arbitron used to be fairly open about sharing their studies with the industry, although when I began there, I found a few in our research library in Columbia that I never knew existed.
This is one of the biggest changes in diary methodology in some time. The diary redesign project took place in the mid-’80s and the diary you know and love (perhaps “love” is not the best choice of words) has been around for nearly 40 years. There have been more recent changes to the instructions and the examples to ensure that diarykeepers know that they can include satellite and online listening, even if some of it doesn’t count as radio listening in the Nielsen edit rules.
At one time in the mid-2000s, we tested a diary with multiple columns for satellite, internet, and “other” beyond just AM and FM. “Other” proved to be very limited in testing although I clearly remember one person in the test claiming that they were listening to God or another Christian deity and checked the “other” box.
We presented the results to the NAB’s COLRAM committee and Dick Jenkins, then with EMF, was a member. He had a good laugh when I told him that the entry could not be credited to the local EMF station. By the way, the diary changes worked but the software changes would have been major and expensive, not only for the diary, but also reporting. Lots of moving parts would have been affected.
Here’s my request: Nielsen, release the study. No, this doesn’t rise to the level of freeing Nelson Mandela or President Reagan in Berlin saying “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall”. Put the study out there for all of us in the industry to review and raise questions. It might shock Nielsen Audio, but those of us who know something about how rating surveys work might even agree and publicly support Nielsen Audio’s methodology change, not that anyone’s support or objections will change anything.
The premise of this column is that such a study exists. I’d be shocked if the change was not tested, but you never know. Nielsen Audio, just put the data out there and let us take a look. We can safely assume that a large portion of the client base will never read a research study with p values and scads of data tables.
A few of us will and speaking for myself, I’d like to review it. Any study would have been shared with the MRC staff and perhaps presented to the MRC Radio Committee and that’s fine, but it needs more sunlight than that limited group.
Anyone for a protest march? Picket signs saying “Free the Diary Reuse Study?” OK, I didn’t think so, but it’s in the industry’s best interests to know what we can expect from this change.
Let’s meet again next week.
