Nielsen and IMMI Begin Providing First Daily All-Electronic TV Ratings for Viewing Outside the Home

Nielsen and IMMI Begin Providing First Daily All-Electronic TV Ratings for Viewing Outside the Home

'House' and 'Home Run Derby' Have Highest Out-of-Home Ratings in July

NEW YORK and SAN MATEO, Calif., Sept. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- The Nielsen Company and Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI) have begun delivering the first daily all-electronic national TV ratings of television viewing that occurs outside of the home. This includes audience estimates of television viewing in out-of-home locations such as offices, fitness clubs, hotels and bars.

The syndicated service launches with two charter clients -- ESPN and Zenith Media.

In the month of July, FOX's "House" and ESPN's "Home Run Derby" generated the most out-of-home viewing among primetime broadcast and cable respectively, with both attracting 570,000 out-of-home viewers (see tables 1 and 2).

Among a group of highly rated special events/sports programs from June 30 to August 10, the program with the highest number of out-of-home viewers was the Olympics Opening Ceremony on NBC, with 1.1 million viewers (see table 3).

"Until now, no one has been able to provide on-going 24/7 national measurement of television viewing that takes place outside the home," said Sara Erichson, Executive Vice President, Media Client Services, for the Nielsen Company. "Working with IMMI, Nielsen can now capture out-of-home viewing and provide a more complete picture of how people are watching television."

"Our co-branded product with Nielsen is one of the services IMMI offers in an effort to give media companies and advertisers data that helps them make smart business decisions," said Tom Zito, president and CEO of Integrated Media Measurement Inc. "We are living in an environment where viewers are increasingly consuming media in locations outside of the home, and as researchers we need to factor in audience exposure from all directions."

"Out-of-home delivery is a critical part of ESPN delivery, encompassing usage on campuses, in hotels, at work as well as bars and restaurants," said Glenn Enoch, Vice President of Integrated Media Research, ESPN. "ESPN Research has spent years examining and valuing our out-of-home audience in various ways. We are interested both in the technology of this service, utilizing the first meter that captures viewing outside of homes and dorms, and in the program-level precision that it provides."

"Zenith believes firmly in following the video," said Wendy Marquardt, President, Zenith Media US. "In a mobile society, viewership isn't just about people sitting in the living room gathered around the set. Nielsen's Out-of-Home service is part of our commitment to the full understanding of video, in the home, out of the home, on the net and on personal media devices."

Nielsen is offering the national service to clients as a stand-alone service, separate from Nielsen's National People Meter sample, which is used to generate program ratings of viewing that takes place inside people's homes. Later this year Nielsen and IMMI plan to deliver local out-of-home services in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Houston and Denver, which are the first markets in which IMMI has established panels.

The six local markets each have a participating panel of approximately 500 people, or a total of 3,000 participants. The sample for the national service is comprised of participants from the local services, plus an additional 1,700 national panelists to provide a greater representation of the rest of the U.S. The national panel is weighted to be representative of the entire U.S. and has an effective sample size of approximately 2,500 panelists.

IMMI provides panel members with a mobile phone, asking them to carry it with them wherever they go. The mobile phone is equipped with a technology that creates digital signatures of all the audio media (television, radio and movies) to which it has been exposed. IMMI then matches these with audio signatures collected by IMMI from actual telecasts with the results then transmitted to IMMI computer servers for reporting.

About The Nielsen Company

The Nielsen Company is a global information and media company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and business publications (Billboard, The Hollywood Reporter, Adweek). The privately held company is active in more than 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA. For more information, please visit, www.nielsen.com.

About Integrated Media Measurement Inc.

Integrated Media Measurement Inc. (IMMI) is the developer of an end-to-end media measurement system that links media exposure to consumer action. Using a mobile-phone-based digital monitoring system, IMMI tracks almost all media 24/7 and helps businesses evaluate the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns. IMMI is based in San Mateo, Calif. More information is available at http://www.immi.com/.

                                  Table 1    Top Primetime Broadcast Network Programs   July 2008 (6/30 - 7/27)   Persons 13-54                                                            Live Out of Home       Network    Program Name                 Date Aired   Rating  Viewers                                                                      (000)     1   FOX       HOUSE -- MON 9P                6/30/08      0.33     570    2   FOX       MOMENT OF TRUTH                 7/8/08      0.33     570    3   ABC       BACHELORETTE -- 6/30           6/30/08      0.32     553    3   FOX       SMARTER THAN 5TH GRADER        7/24/08      0.31     535    5   FOX       HELL'S KITCHEN                  7/8/08      0.31     535    5   FOX       FOX MLB ALL-STAR GAME          7/15/08      0.30     518    5   FOX       SO YOU THINK CN DANCE -- THU   7/24/08      0.30     518    8   FOX       SO YOU THINK CN DANCE -- WED   7/23/08      0.30     518    9   FOX       COPS                           7/26/08      0.29     501   10   ABC       PRIMETIME: CRIME               7/23/08      0.28     484   10   FOX       AMW: AMERICA FIGHTS BACK       7/26/08      0.27     466   10   FOX       COPS 2                         7/26/08      0.27     466    Source: Out-Of-Home Report, a service of Nielsen and IMMI                                     Table 2    Top Primetime Cable Network Programs   July 2008 (6/30 - 7/27)   Persons 13-54                                                              Live Out of Home        Network         Program Name              Date Aired  Rating  Viewers                                                                       (000)     1   ESPN            HOME RUN DERBY L            7/14/08    0.33     570    2   TNT             SPRINT CUP RACING/DAYTONA    7/5/08    0.29     501    3   DISNEY CHANNEL  INCREDIBLES, THE            7/27/08    0.27     466    4   ABC FAMILY      SECRET LIFE/AMERICAN TEEN   7/15/08    0.26     449    4   USA NETWORK     IN PLAIN SIGHT              7/20/08    0.26     449    4   USA NETWORK     PSYCH                       7/25/08    0.26     449    7   ESPN            2008 STATE FARM HOME RUN                         DERBY PRELUDE              7/14/08    0.24     415    7   USA NETWORK     PSYCH                       7/18/08    0.24     415    9   NICKELODEON     AVATAR: SOZINS COMET        7/19/08    0.23     397   10   A&E NETWORK     DOG THE BOUNTY HUNTER        7/2/08    0.22     380    Source: Out-Of-Home Report, a service of Nielsen and IMMI                                     Table 3    Selected Special Events/Sports Events   June 30, 2008 - August 10, 2008   Persons 13-54                                                          Live Out of Home       Network   Program Name              Date Aired     Rating  Viewers                                                                   (000)     1  NBC       SUM OLYM OPEN CEREM          8/8/08       0.61     1054    2  NBC       SUM OLYM SAT PRIME 1         8/9/08       0.55      950    3  NBC       SUM OLYM SUN PRIME 1        8/10/08       0.47      812    4  ESPN      HOME RUN DERBY L            7/14/08       0.33      570    5  FOX       FOX MLB ALL-STAR GAME       7/15/08       0.30      518    6  TNT       SPRINT CUP RACING/DAYTONA    7/5/08       0.29      501    7  FOX       FOX MLB ASG EXTRA INNINGS   7/15/08       0.26      449    8  ESPN      2008 STATE FARM HOME RUN                  DERBY PRELUDE              7/14/08       0.24      415    9  FOX       FOX SATURDAY BASEBALL        7/5/08       0.20      345   10  NBC       OLYMPIC TRIALS 7/4 8P        7/4/08       0.19      328    Source: Out-Of-Home Report, a service of Nielsen and IMMI  

Source: The Nielsen Company and IMMI

CONTACT: Gary Holmes of The Nielsen Company, +1-646-654-8975,
gary.holmes@nielsen.com; or Steve Honig of The Honig Company, Inc.,
+1-818-986-4300, press@honigcompany.com, for IMMI

Web site: http://www.nielsen.com/
http://www.immi.com/

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Profile: International Entertainment