War of words erupts as Aussie ratings fight rages on

<p>SYDNEY: The fallout from Australia's twin terrestrial television </p><p>ratings system continues to scorch all those who come into contact with </p><p>the fracas. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>As long-time industry leader Network Nine continues to lose ground in </p><p>the ratings to Network Seven under the new ratings system it lobbied </p><p>hard to introduce, the ousted incumbent ACNielsen has called for an </p><p>independent auditor to be brought in. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>OzTam was brought in as the official ratings agency for Australia's </p><p>three commercial channels and two non-commercial ones after ACNielsen </p><p>lost the decade-old contract to the newcomer, which is owned by Seven, </p><p>Nine and Network Ten. But the two companies continued to produce data in </p><p>tandem, revealing major differences. OzTam showed Seven leading Nine in </p><p>six of the first 11 weeks of 2001. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>In the week of January 21, Nine's audience share fell to 24.3 per cent, </p><p>compared with Seven's 34.9 per cent - an unprecedented gap. To make </p><p>things worse, OzTam data showed that up to a million people in a nation </p><p>of less than 20 million were not actually watching any TV at all. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>This led Nine to continue with ACNielsen data, a route also taken by the </p><p>ad agencies responsible for allocating Australia's USdollars 1.6 billion </p><p>advertising spend. </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Seven's managing director Maureen Plavsic was quoted as saying that </p><p>Nine's use of ACNielsen data was "completely outrageous". She added that </p><p>the data "statistically is really unreliable". </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>Ian Garland, the managing director of ACNielsen Media International, </p><p>immediately countered: "She and her colleagues at the Seven Network </p><p>might like what they see in the OzTAM ratings, but there is no basis for </p><p>criticising the ACNielsen ratings or the Nine Network's use of </p><p>them." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>He added: "We note with interest that in recent weeks the OzTAM viewing </p><p>levels have begun to more closely resemble ACNielsen's reported viewing </p><p>levels; given our data has remained relatively stable over this time it </p><p>would seem that questions should be asked of OzTAM." </p><p><BR><BR> </p><p>ACNielsen offered to take part in an independent audit review of both it </p><p>and OzTAM system. "We are confident our procedures and processes will </p><p>pass scrutiny," said Garland. </p><p><BR><BR> </p>