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Univision to Join Nielsen's Television Index Next Year
November 10, 2005
By Luis Clemens
Univision intends to join Nielsen's Television Index (NTI) sometime next year, according to comments made by President and COO Ray Rodriguez during last week's third-quarter earnings conference call. "Once we enter we believe there is great opportunity there," he said.
Doug Darfield, Nielsen senior vice president for Hispanic Services, says Univision “can be seen by 70 percent of all households in the US and they meet the definition of a network to be in the NTI. We are talking about terms." Darfield says the Nielsen Hispanic Television Index (NHTI) is scheduled to be phased out altogether in fall 2007.
"Ultimately, Univision wants to compete on the same playing field as NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox,” says David Flynn Huerta, managing director of Austin-based Amistad Media. “They've never really walked away from the 'we are the fifth network' positioning. That's where the money is."
Univision has been tracking its ratings on NTI versus NHTI. "We want to make sure the NTI gives us as much audience as the NHTI,” Rodriguez said. “We know it is getting closer and closer. At the time that we feel that NTI is giving us a total fair count we will switch to NTI. We believe it is going to happen this year coming up." Rodriguez said the move would "be very significant to our business," citing that some of the software used by media buyers does not incorporate NHTI data, "so we don't even exist as far as many buyers are concerned."
According to a number of industry sources, that is an overstatement. However, Flynn says, "Us [media] buyers tend to be pretty lazy and we like everything in one place."
Debra Nason, vp and managing director of Bromley Interlink, the media research, planning and buying division of Bromley Communications, cautions that inclusion in the NTI may not produce large revenue increases. She says general-market agencies "are still uncomfortable in giving up Univision's rightful share of the spoils. Despite Univision's competitive standing against the English nets, separate budgets and separate languages often set Univision (or any other Spanish-language network for that matter) off to the side in competing for general-market dollars."
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