Sponsor (Jan-June 1954)

hat you should know about it provide area ratings that measure all local clialiii" Latest Nielsen electronic gadget, RecorrJimeter, is key to new diary study t st like something "It looks ju dreamed up for George Orwell's book 1984," said an agency research chief last week as he ivas shown the small grey gadget pictured at right. It ivas Nielsen's new "Recor dimeter," a device which will be used, along ivith existing Audimeters, to cj'oss-check the accuracy of diaries submitted by members of local Nielsen rating panels. Gadget is actually a sort of Audimeter Jr. It has an on-off switch (which panelist turns "On" at start of week of diary recording), a Veeder counter (which records the total amount of time set is actually on), a flashing light and buzzer (to remind panelist every half hour to fill in Audilog diary). Diary is seen hanging from set. avoid "short-changing" stations that reach out beyond the metropolitan areas in which most of the local rating services (like Pulse and Hooper) now do the bulk of their measurements. Thus, local Nielsen ratings would be good for a station's whole coverage area and give a count on all the homes reached by a particular program on a particular station. This would be done, said Nielsen, by selecting large areas around metropolitan centers — an average of 10,000 square miles — in which to plant the Nielsen diaries. 4. A report which would give timebuyers a wide range of data, including audience size and composition, cumulative audience, station shares, both the metropolitan-only and whole coverage area audiences. Nielsen feels his data will enable timebuyers to calculate accurate cost-per-1,000 figures, avoiding the pitfalls of such popularbut-inaccurate methods as the "half-ofhome-countv" and "509c formula" in which arbitrary cut-offs are used in projecting local ratings against coverage information. His radio figures may, by the way, include out-of-home listening in cars as an "optional" feature. 5. Local research data which, in many ways, will be an extension of the network-level NRI and NTI services. Admen, for example, would be able to get a picture of how a network show behaves at the local level in some 30 leading markets, and how these local raitngs compare with the national averages. Nielsen feels that his local services will be generally compatible with the national Audimeter data since the research methods I fixed sample of homes on probability basis, etc.) are similar. Those are the highlights of Nielsens proposals. The new Nielsen local ratings will start late this summer, or early this fall — if enough agencies and stations buy them. Nielsen has fieldtested his new diary technique and has detailed plans for putting local ratings in operation, but the go-ahead time depends on industry reaction. Nielsen may well modify some details of the local ratings plan in response to suggestions, after the industry has had a chance to study his plans. As Nielsen sees it. his main customers for the lo«'al ratings will be agencies, who will use this service in (Please turn to page 125) .\ielsen joins 5 others in local rating" race At the moment, no less than five ratings firms are providing local radio and/or tv research data. They are: American Research Bureau, Hooper, Pulse, Trendex and Videodex. (For details see "What's wrong with the rating services? ", SPONSOR, 28 Dec. 1953 issue.) 8 FEBRUARY 1954 35