Return of Nielsen ratings in NOLA delayed...again.

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On the Air

Wrong time for ratings

Nielsens won't return to New Orleans today after all

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Dave Walker

 

Today had been the scheduled return of Nielsen TV ratings in New Orleans, which have been suspended since Hurricane Katrina. But glitches in Nielsen Media Research's audience-sampling procedures have pushed the restart to July.

 

Sorry, On the Air readers, but your thirst for this column's thrice-annual, data-dense reports on local news viewership races will not be quenched for three more months at least.

 

"As we've been looking at the numbers, we found some things that weren't quite right," Nielsen spokeswoman Anne Elliot said. "We needed some more time to be sure the quality will be what we and our clients expect.

 

"We'd rather not do it if it's not going to be done right."

 

Today's restart was to include both the daily "overnight" ratings of households, measured electronically in selected homes, plus the re-launch of a diary-based system that gathers detailed demographic information, by which some advertising rates are set.

 

Each day's overnights, which measure viewership in quarter-hour bits, arrive at stations electronically the following morning. The results of the diary survey -- or sweeps "book" -- are delivered to stations and advertisers several weeks after the end of the four-week sweeps period.

 

Both have been pushed back to July, with a one-month preview period for overnights starting May 31.

 

"We like to give our clients some time to look at the numbers before they become currency," Elliot said. "Especially in this case. There's been such change in the market."

 

Today is also the start of May "sweeps," considered the most important ratings period by stations because the results essentially determine what they can charge advertisers through the end of the year. November and February are the other significant sweeps months. July is also a sweeps period but is considered the least important of the four.

 

Since July is typically the sweeps month with the lowest overall audience levels, it may not be an ideal starting point for the return of TV ratings to New Orleans, WVUE General Manager Vanessa Oubre said.

 

"July is almost a book that nobody uses," she said. "I'd prefer they make sure it's right and it's perfect as can be and then they go ahead and have a book in November.

 

"July is not make-or-break for any of us. It's a rerun book."

 

Since Katrina, stations have been setting ad rates with a combination of estimating methods, including using the ratings of similarly sized and composed markets, such as Memphis, Tenn., or using adjusted ratings from 2005. According to station managers, the overall post-K advertising economy in the New Orleans metro area has been more robust than expected.

 

Still, the havoc Katrina wrought on local TV viewers -- including the initial extended evacuation, subsequent regional population shifts, rebuilding distractions and frustrations, not to mention the continuing absence of an estimated 200,000 local residents (which last year dropped New Orleans' Nielsen market ranking from No. 43 to 54) -- appears to be the culprit in Nielsen's ratings-rebuilding task.

 

"It's an all-new sample, from zero," Elliot said. "Our samples are always drawn to reflect the community. It all had to be recruited fresh."

 

Change has been profound in local TV newsrooms since the storm as well, and there has been intense speculation about what impact, if any, post-Katrina differences in the market's viewer composition, combined with myriad on-air changes, have had on local TV news races, won handily for decades by CBS affiliate WWL-Channel 4. Typically, up to half of a station's profits are made during local newscasts.

 

Since TV audiences were last measured in New Orleans, local news workers have weathered news-staff and management churn and newsroom reconstruction and relocation. Syndicated lead-in and lead-out programming has shifted and network prime-time fortunes have risen and fallen, all of which traditionally sway local-news ratings.

 

NBC affiliate WDSU-Channel 6 has been the most aggressive local station in ramping up newscast scheduling since Katrina, adding news broadcasts on weekends, at midday and late night. The station also ordered up a new news set, the debut of which was planned to coincide with the start of May sweeps.

 

"Our staff is disappointed that we've not been able to see ratings at this point," WDSU General Manger Joel Vilmenay said. "We understand that Nielsen is working very diligently to make sure the research they produce is really valid."