Nielsen TV ad ratings seen by early 2007

By Paul Thomasch and Jeffrey Goldfarb

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nielsen Media Research could introduce as early next year its controversial ratings service that measures how many people watch television commercials, Chief Executive Susan Whiting said on Tuesday.

Nielsen initially planned to launch the so-called commercial ratings in November, but delayed the move amid disagreements from both TV networks and advertisers about how the ratings would work.

Whiting, speaking at the Reuters Media Summit in New York, said her company would meet with a cross-section of the industry on December 7 "to put together a plan that everybody could agree on."

"We're just hoping to do it as soon as possible," Whiting said, adding that the service could begin as early as the first quarter of 2007.

"I wish it wasn't so controversial, but I'm used to the controversy."

The project, which has drawn opposition from broadcasters and the cable industry, is already generating usable data, but is considered an experiment, meaning networks can choose whether or not their commercials are rated.

Nielsen's data is one of the determining factors for advertisers on how to spend about $70 billion a year on TV commercials.

Broadcast networks are concerned about the measurement of ads watched on digital video recorders (DVRs) while the cable networks want reassurance that Nielsen distinguishes between local and national ads.

Before Nielsen's delay, TV networks and advertisers had expected the new ratings system to be in place before next spring's upfront presentations, the period when new prime-time line-ups are unveiled and most of the ad time for the upcoming season is negotiated.

This year, talks between TV networks and advertisers were slowed by questions about viewership of commercials, an issue that has become increasingly important as more U.S. households move to DVRs that allow commercials to be skipped.

Nielsen plans to roll out over the next two years a complete TV-watching measurement tool that captures video on portable devices, the Internet and mobile phones, as audiences and advertisers shift their viewing habits.

"This was probably the No. 1 request (from our clients) -- they all want to understand how consumers are driven and move back and forth between television and the Internet," Whiting said.

Nielsen is a unit of closely held VNU, which is based in the Netherlands but has most of its operations in New York. VNU also owns a majority of online measurement firm NetRatings.

The TV ratings firm has put a possible move into radio on the back-burner, Whiting said. Nielsen had said in September that it was in talks with the radio industry to measure listeners in a move that would put it head-to-head against industry measurement leader Arbitron.

"Right now, we have so much we're focused on in the television arena," she said. "That is not something we're talking about or made a decision about."  Continued...