NAB Challenges Nielsen Measurement of Consumer Readiness for Digital TV
March 12, 2009
WASHINGTON, DC — National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) President and CEO David Rehr sent the following letter to Nielsen Media Research urging the company to change its misleading methodology for measuring consumer readiness for the upcoming transition to digital television.
March 11, 2009
David Calhoun
Chairman and CEO
Nielsen Media Research
770 Broadway
New York, NY 10003
Dear Mr. Calhoun:
On behalf of America's television and radio broadcasters, thank you for your partnership and work on the digital television (DTV) transition. Our industry has dedicated more than $1.2 billion to educate consumers about this transition - on top of $5 billion of infrastructure upgrades in the last decade. The Nielsen Company's research is a crucial element of our industry's ability to measure viewership.
However, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) respectfully disagrees with your assessment of and methodology surrounding your Digital Television Transition: Update on Digital Readiness of U.S. Households reports distributed each month.
These reports show a stunning increase in action taken to upgrade to digital by over-the-air households, from 9.8 percent "completely unready" last May to 3.9 percent "completely unready" in March 2009.
However, your reports classify as "completely unready" television households that have purchased converter boxes but not yet hooked them up, and households that have a converter box coupon they have not yet redeemed or have applied for a coupon but are waiting for it to arrive. NAB research shows that nearly 40 percent of television households that have purchased converter boxes have not yet hooked them up - a significant number considering that 25,066,732 converter box coupons have thus far been redeemed. Meanwhile, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, nearly 8 million converter box coupons remain "active," which means households have received the coupons but have not yet used them to purchase converter boxes.
While these households may be technically unready in the strictest sense, it is unfair and misleading to classify them as "completely unready," especially those that have already purchased converter boxes. This methodology and classification overstates the number of truly unprepared households, and given the weight and widespread dissemination of Nielsen research, these reports can contribute to an unnecessary level of concern that the transition is not going well among members of Congress and regulators at the Federal Communications Commission.
We urge you to change the classifications used in your research, or to at least distinguish between households that neither have coupons nor boxes - the ones we truly need to focus on - and those that have unused coupons and unconnected converter boxes.
We appreciate your time and look forward to working with you in the DTV Transition Coalition, and together with local television stations, to make sure the transition goes smoothly for our viewers all across America.
Best wishes.
Sincerely,
David K. Rehr
President and CEO
