Nielsen Set The Put Level For One Prime-time Minute For Women

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The very rich, the well educated, the poor, and minority groups—particularly poorer African American and Hispanic families—were traditionally underrepresented in the Nielsen samples. Minorities and poorer Americans were underrepresented because Nielsen field representatives tended to be whites who encountered hostility when they knocked on doors in ghettos or barrios. It was difficult to find African American and Hispanic families who would agree to fill out diaries, and Nielsen did not begin distributing Spanish-language diaries until 1978. The high D&G Jewelry Sale level of literacy required and the tediousness of the task limited all diary participation to the better educated and middle class; thus African Americans and Hispanics who agreed to fill out diaries tended to be those whose viewing patterns resembled the viewing of white middle-class audiences. The distribution of people meters faced similar problems.

The underrepresentation of African Americans and members of other minority groups created significant problems for television stations that appealed ...
... to such audiences. Because their primary viewership was underrepresented in the ratings sample, such outlets got lower ratings and therefore found it difficult to attract advertisers. This situation in turn made it harder for minority programming or minority outlets to survive.

By November 1989, Nielsen was able to show that 11 percent of its respondents were African American.39 Census figures in 1990 indicated that 11.3 percent of the U.S. population is African American. In early June 1990, Nielsen announced that it was "enhancing" the methods it uses to collect and report on African American and Hispanic audiences.

Starting in 1991, Nielsen expanded its monthly National Audience Demographic Report to include African American households and about twenty African American demographic categories. At the same time, a number of organizations, including Tribune Entertainment and Burrell Uniworld, pledged to launch educational campaigns designed to increase cooperation in the ratings process among African American and Hispanic households.

Still, some felt that audience estimates remained skewed in favor of white viewers. In 1994, at the urging of African American television producers and advertising agencies, Nielsen once again announced revisions in its collecting and reporting methods. It would increase the representation of African Americans in its sample and consider the creation of a separate sample and report for African Americans.

This attention was driven, in part, by demography. United States census figures show that "the African American population is expected to D&G Jewelry swell to 39 million by 2010, 50% faster growth than the rest of the population." The publisher of Target Market News reports that markets spent $1.2 billion to reach African Americans in 1997, double what was spent a decade before.

In summer 1990, the three major networks agreed on a new uniform policy for pro-viding guarantees that advertisers reach the size of audience for which they have paid. Fluctuations in the people-using-television (PUT) numbers and what the networks view as "inexplicable falloff" in audience viewing have prompted the networks to base the guarantees on trends since the 1982-83 viewing season. A PUT number is the combined ratings of all stations and channels available for viewers at a specified time. Since the people meters showed a falloff in audience, the networks have viewed the Nielsen PUT numbers with suspicion; 1982-83 was set as the starting point because that was the first year in which viewing stopped increasing. In the fourth quarter of 1989-90, Nielsen set the PUT level for one prime-time minute for women aged 18 to 49 at 39.3 percent. The new network method set the number at 39.9 percent.