According to Spanish Broadcasting System, Nielsen notified the company earlier this week that big changes were being made regarding the weighting of Hispanic listeners in the Los Angeles market. The company says the changes – the removal of 4 panelists – will have a drastic impact on its ratings. SBS General Counsel Richard Lara called Nielsen’s changes “unfair and discriminatory,” and said the ratings firm was attacking U.S.- based Hispanics.
Here’s Lara’s complete statement: “Earlier this week, Spanish Broadcasting System, the owner and operator of 17 radio stations serving the top Hispanic markets throughout the United States for over 30 years, received disconcerting news from The Nielsen Company. Nielsen announced its intention to make sweeping, retroactive changes to its audience measurement service based on an internal decision to remove a number of Hispanic
households from its ratings sampling pool. SBS, and other Spanish-language broadcasters, vehemently object and protest such unilateral, and seemingly, discriminatory actions taken by Nielsen, which unfairly and disproportionally exclude Hispanic-listener households from the ratings methodology. The restated ratings and rankings reports are, in SBS’s view unreliable, and inaccurately suggest that Spanish-language stations have dropped from top 5 rankings to number 15 or lower. This cannot stand. SBS will continue to faithfully serve its Hispanic-listener communities and will not tolerate unfair and discriminatory attacks on Spanish language broadcasters. We will not stop until Nielson’s prejudicial and discriminatory attacks on U.S.-based Hispanics ceases.”
Nielsen sent the following response to Radio Ink Friday morning: “The integrity of our data is paramount and that is why Nielsen removed four homes from the Los Angeles PPM panel effective with the April monthly audio currency data. An internal review concluded that these homes did not meet our data quality and integrity standards. We conducted an analysis of data from October 2017 to March 2018 and determined that the data for these months will be reissued without these homes included. We have reviewed the composition and characteristics of the balance of the Los Angeles PPM panel without these homes and have determined that it meets our quality standards. The in-tab sample for the Los Angeles population overall and for Hispanic Spanish language dominant households in particular is representative of the market. 20.6% of the market is Hispanic Spanish Dominant and our goal is to have the composition of the sample come as close as possible to this proportion. In April, we indexed at 100 for Hispanic Spanish Dominant which means that the proportion of the in-tab sample equaled the percent of the population. In March, we indexed at 99. Previously with these four homes included we indexed at 101. Nielsen stands behind the quality and integrity of the Los Angeles radio listening estimates.”
TheBigA nails it down tight.
Radio has a responsibility to demonstrate its value to audiences and its efficacy to advertisers by generating results – through superior programming and ad creative.
Doing that makes any ratings issue a matter of little concern or utility.
In those Canadian markets where it is a factor, French language radio plow their own fields.
Joel naval. Ahi esta haver si me entienden y gracias por el apoyo
Nielsen faults
Panelist make people very old
Panelist do people who never listen to radio
Panelist make children with special
Conditions
They get angry with calls to
The panelist to move them
They pay a misery… The average payment
According to their points 10 to 20 dollars a month
When a panelist listens to a station a lot
They question it because he listens a lot to said radio station
And when they suspect of undue management they threaten them and harras them sating
That the FBI is going to his house and the meters have a GPS
He feels the panelist spied on and deprived of his freedom
They make unannounced visit to the
Panelist
When they suspect of undue management by preaching people and harassing them
Here the translation to Irineo’s Comment in Spanish:
Nielsen Errors:
They make panelist the elderly
They make panelist people who never listens to radio
They make panelists disabled kids.
They bother with annoying phone calls the panelists, so they could be moved.
They pay next to nothing. Their average payment is around 10 to 20 dollars per month
When a panelist listens too much a radio station, they question him why he is listening too much to certain radio station, and when they get suspicious of unfair use of their system, they threat them by saying the FBI will stop by on their homes because the PPM’s have GPS integrated on them making the panelist being spied and privacy invaded.
They make unannounced visits to the panelists.
When Nielsen get suspicious of unfair use, they harass the people and put a lot of pressure on them.
Fallas de Nielsen
Hacen panelistas a personas muy mayores de edad
Hacen panelistas a personas k nunca escuchan radio
Hacen panelistas a ninos con discapacidades
Enfadan con llamadas a los panelistas para k los muevan
Pagan una miseria….el promedio de pago segun sus puntos es de 10 a 20 dolares al mes
Cuando un panelista escucha mucho a una estacion lo cuestionan que por que escucha a cierta emisora de radio y cuando sospechan de manejo indeviduo
Los amenasan y los acosan diciendoles k el FBI va it a su casa y que los medidores tienen GPS asiendo sentir al panelista espiado y privado de su livertad
Haven visitas sin previo aviso alos panelistas
Cuando sospechan de manejo indevido
Presionando ala gente y acosandolos
Fallas de Nielsen
Hacen panelistas a personas muy mayores de edad
Hacen panelistas a personas k nunca escuchan radio
Hacen panelistas a ninos con discapacidades
Enfadan con llamadas a los panelistas para k los muevan
Pagan una miseria….el promedio de pago segun sus puntos es de 10 a 20 dolares al mes
Cuando un panelista escucha mucho a una estacion lo cuestionan que por que escucha a cierta emisora de radio y cuando sospechan de manejo indeviduo
Los amenasan y los acosan diciendoles k el FBI va it a su casa y que los medidores tienen GPS asiendo sentir al panelista espiado y privado de su livertad
Haven visitas sin previo aviso alos panelistas
Cuando sospechan de manejo indevido
Presionando ala gente y acosandolos
Gran Comentario Irineo, Pongalo en Ingles para que lo entiendan todos. Great Comment Irineo, Place it in english, so every body could understand it!!
This is the biggest reason why analog radio is failing because it does not have a true scientific method to know how many people are listening to their radio signals realistically.
Nielsen is like Pro Tools on the recording industry, it may not be the best out there, but it is an industry standard who many love while others hate. I personally hate it.
Why does Nielsen does not survey Low Power FM’s head to head with the rest of the commercial cluster?
We have thousands of people listening to our low lower radio station, yet we can not sell not even a single Ad to ad agencies because Nielsen does not survey us. what a joke!!
the problem with nielsen relies in very few and small data samples which determines huge amounts of destinies who are worth millions, but if Nielsen have the wrong data from the wrong samples, it is catastrophic for many radio broadcasters who depend on those ratings like SBS.
I, persinally, think that Nielsen should conduct their surveys based on ethnicity, demographics, and the most important of all: Geographics.
I can not believe that just by dropping 4 Households in a market like LA where there are millions of hispanics would he so painfully deadly for one segment of our population (the latinos) while it will be like music on their ears for others.
The latinos should have their own independent surveying brand. A brand speciallly designed to truelly and realistically understand the diversity of the latino market.
so far, Nielsen has been every thing but a good company representing every one equally.
in Nielsen filosophy, if you want to be surveyed, we need to be payed.
When there is so much on stake, who can guarantee me that Nielsen practices have been always clear, clean, and transparent?
“Why does Nielsen does not survey Low Power FM’s head to head with the rest of the commercial cluster?”
Have you contacted them? They survey lots of other non-coms. But you need to encode your signal so their meter can pick it up. Then you have to subscribe to their ratings to get the data. That costs money. I know a lot of low power translators have been showing up in the ratings lately, but they’re encoded.
The main purpose of the ratings is for advertisers. They’re the ones who demanded it. Radio stations are just doing what the advertisers want. This isn’t a popularity contest or a reality TV show to determine who gets voted off. The question is do you need this kind of information, or is your money better spent serving your audience?
I asked them, and Nielsen Don’t survey Low Power Non Comercial FM radio stations. They do survey Commercial Low Power Translators though, but they do not survey LPFM’s. That’s a fact.
I did encode the signal, and they do not surveyed us. Instead, they referred us to another phony parter of them who only surveys non commercial radios stations, and they only survey the big Non Commercial Full Power ones, but not the Low Power FM’s.
So, here is another proof of the Nielsen Discrimination practices against segments of people or broadcasters that they don’t like.
The main purpose of the ratings is not for advertisers, the main purpose of the ratings is to have an accurate and scientific proof of how many listeners are listening where and when. Relying on a unreliable radio rating system is like going blind in the middle of the ocean.
There are radio stations who have no Nielsen Ratings, yet they celan the sponsors inventories. While on the other hand, there are radio stations with top ratings who don’t sell not even a coca cola in the middle of the desert, why? You explain me, you are the expert.
“The main purpose of the ratings is not for advertisers”
That’s not true. The only reason radio stations spend the money on ratings is because advertisers demand the numbers. The agencies want to see numbers before they spend money. A lot of stations don’t subscribe to the ratings because they do direct selling to local advertisers who don’t need ratings. As I said this is not a game or a contest. It’s a business. Once again, if you want to do your own survey, go ahead. No law that prevents you. But it’ll probably cost you money.
We have thousands of people listening to our low lower radio station, yet we can not sell not even a single Ad to ad agencies because Nielsen does not survey us. what a joke!!
You’re a non commercial station. You’re not allowed to sell ads. The reason you can’t sell ads is because you’re non-commercial. Not because Nielsen doesn’t survey you. If you have thousands of people listening, you need to set up a membership system, where they can be members of your station for a fee. That’s how non-commercial stations get money. Not from ratings and advertising.
Nielsen’s work in Los Angles appears to be fully accredited by the Media Rating Council. Which means that SBS will have to learn to adjust to a new reality as is reflected by the market.
SBS issuing statements proclaiming that Nielsen discriminates against Hispanic Spanish speaking households is foolish and unprofessional.
SBS is shooting the messenger. Also, to think that one cannot reach Hispanics thru dominant ENGLISH-speakimg stations, is a complete fallacy.