Bad news for television news in the Washington area: The final test of the new method used to measure local audiences showed fewer households watched in June.
One exception: The ratings for the region’s long-suffering CBS affiliate, WUSA-TV (Channel 9) increased under the new system during two key time periods.
Nielsen Media Research Inc., the company that measures TV ratings, officially switched to its new “local people meters” system in the Washington area Thursday.
The meters are electronic devices that sit atop TV sets in Nielsen-selected households. They replace the written diaries and older meters that Nielsen families used to record their viewing habits for decades.
Nielsen has used people meters to gauge ratings for national broadcasters since 1987, but it recently began using them to monitor viewership for local programming, introducing them city by city.
The New York company had hoped to adopt people meters as its official system in Washington in the spring, but broadcasters who are concerned that the system undercounts minority viewers pressured Nielsen to delay the switch until June 30 so they would have more time to understand how the new system works.
Before the change, Nielsen tested the people meters alongside the old system for 28 days. The results: Viewership for most newscasts was almost always lower under people meters.
For example, under the old system, the newscast on NBC station WRC-TV (Channel 4) led weekday afternoons at 5 with 115,000 households.
The local news on ABC affiliate WJLA-TV (Channel 7) came in second with 111,000 households, followed by the news on Fox station WTTG-TV (Channel 5) with 79,000 households.
WUSA’s newscast trailed with 39,000 households.
But under people meters, WRC fell to 103,000 households at 5 p.m., WJLA dropped to 69,000 households, and WTTG dipped to 68,000 households.
WUSA was the only station that fared better, drawing 46,000 households.
“We did not see as much of a decline as some of the other stations,” said WUSA’s president and general manager, Darryll J. Green. “We still have concerns about people meters, but I know Nielsen is addressing them.”
No matter how you slice it, WRC is still the region’s most popular choice for local news.
The only time period when the station saw an improvement over the old system was during the late news race: The NBC station drew 145,000 households at 11 p.m. under people meters, compared with 143,000 under the old system.
Some newsroom managers grumble that Nielsen still has a long way to go toward fixing people meters. The programs that lose the most viewers under people meters tend to be the shows that draw the highest levels of minority watchers, these managers said.
Nielsen is dealing with the concerns about people meters by giving the members of its households better instructions on using the devices and increasing the amount that Nielsen families are paid, spokeswoman Karen Gyimesi said.
She declined to state pay rates for household members.
Ms. Gyimesi acknowledged that ratings have fluctuated under people meters, but stressed that the devices provide more accurate results.
“That can be an emotional thing when ad dollars are on the line,” she said.
• Call Chris Baker at 202/636-3139 or send e-mail to cbaker@washingtontimes.com.
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