The A. C. Nielsen Co. is the world's largest market research firm. Founded in 1923, this Chicago-based firm now has operations in twenty-two countries. Though most of its activities involve the checking of drugstore and supermarket shelves to report on how certain products, brands, and sizes are selling, the Nielsen Company is best known for its ratings of network television programs. The Nielsen ratings, first in radio and then in television, have had a significant impact on commercial broadcasting in the United States.”
Development plans for radio ratings date from 1936. Manufacturers who were impressed by Nielsen's abilities in identifying the flow of retail goods requested evaluations of radio advertising. First Nielsen purchased the rights to an audience counting device, called an Audimeter, and then bought out the methodology of an existing ratings company. Unlike other audience measurement techniques which employed diaries, phone calls, or personal interviews, the Nielsen company relied on information supplied by the Audimeter, a black box attached to the radios of selected set owners. A slow crawl film within the Audimeter indicated station listening habits throughout the day. For their cooperation, participating set owners received a nominal fee and a contribution toward set repairs. The actual ratings began in 1942. The data obtained was sold to networks, program suppliers, sponsors, and advertising agencies.
The A. C. Nielsen Co. had stopped radio ratings by 1963; it had encountered too many complications arising from an increase in the number of independent stations. However, in 1950 Nielsen had begun television ratings by adapting the Audimeter to the new medium. Today the Nielsen ratings are the main index used by networks and advertisers in determining the popularity of television programming.
Much of the above information is from Les Brown, ed., The New York Times Encylopedia of Television (New York: Times Books, 1977).
