HispanicBusiness

The Nielsen Company announced Monday it will produce its Hispanic TV ratings through its National People Meter panel – the source for compiling ratings of non-Hispanic networks – and abandon the National Hispanic People Meter it has used to track Hispanics' viewing of English- and Spanish-language programs since 1992.

The company's National People Meter is composed of 12,000 households and contains a subgroup of 1,400 Hispanic households, while the National Hispanic People Meter panel featured just 1,000 Hispanic households.

"By providing the marketplace with a single source of television ratings regardless of language, Nielsen will allow the television industry to evaluate both English- and Spanish-language television and audiences side by side," said Sara Erichson, executive vice president of Nielsen Media Research North America, in a release.

Gary Holmes, a Nielsen spokesperson, told HispanicBusiness.com the switch allows networks, advertisers and ad agencies to buy and sell ad space by using the same numbers.

"It allows an advertiser interested in spending $10 million to allocate the spending across a whole range of available broadcasting options without having to figure out (the value of Hispanic networks) by looking at another set of numbers," he explained.

Mr. Holmes noted that the National People Meter has the same proportion of English-speaking and Spanish-speaking Hispanics as the retired National Hispanic People Meter. He added that Univision and Telemundo became clients of the National People Meter in 2005.

"We've been looking toward phasing out the Hispanic sample for a while," Mr. Holmes said.

One group, Help Change TV, has lobbied for Nielsen to change the way it samples the U.S. Hispanic population in its English and Spanish TV ratings. The group claims that Nielsen does not include enough U.S.-born Hispanics in its audience sample, leading to the impression that a vast majority of Hispanics watch Spanish-language TV.

Nielsen's latest move does not address the nativity vs. language debate sparked by Help Change TV CEO. Robert Rose, who was unavailable for comment Monday.