MediaPost: Nielsen Finally Agrees To Commercial Ratings, Data Available In October '05
Bowing to advertiser requests, Nielsen will stop hiding ratings for specific commercials, allowing media buyers to see minute-by-minute data on how many people were tuned in. Advertisers will have to do their own matching to determine whether or not their ads were victims of the dreaded kitchen break. Suddenly, all that time spent clicking around various channels during a commercial break will be revealed to advertisers starting in 2005. Nielsen will sell the data separately, and for what MediaPost reports is a "hefty price tag" that, if earlier models prove to be instructive precedents, will number in the millions of dollars.
