City of Oldsmar: Nielsen

"Nielsen doesn't deserve support

Once again the City Council of Oldsmar has given in to big business rather than support its citizens who elected them.

Of course, the Chamber of Commerce/Horrors has entered the fray and you know who they would support. Sure wouldn't be labor. They're one of the reasons Florida has such a low wage structure in the first place.

Now as to Nielsen being the largest employer in the city, how can that be when they're firing their longtime employees? Having Tata Consultancy Services supply employees from India does not make Nielsen an employer, only a renter of bodies.

How can anyone in their right mind justify giving such backing to such a bad citizen as Nielsen?"

Nielsen Employees: Oldsmar

"Nielsen Media Research warned its Oldsmar employees Tuesday that more layoffs are coming as the company continues to shift technical work to contract companies abroad.

Through 2009, the TV ratings giant will shed 170 technical support and software jobs in Oldsmar, moving the work to TATA Consultancy Services, an Indian-owned global services company that has taken over local positions at Nielsen.

"What we're trying to do is enlarge our capacity and strengthen our cost effectiveness," said spokesman Gary Holmes.

The cuts come on the heels of Nielsen and the City of Oldsmar last week ending an economic development deal that gave Nielsen incentives for adding jobs in the region — a deal that helped secure Nielsen's operations in the area.

When that phase of job cuts is complete, the company's local employment will drop to 1,300, from about 1,500 this spring. There are about 235 contract employees on the site as well."

Nielsen and PR

"Nielsen Co. executives are starting a public lobbying campaign to argue that the ratings giant is fulfilling job creation goals, despite recent layoffs, while also offering an apology for mishandling recent cuts.

The public relations effort comes amid a high-stakes project at Nielsen to balance investments in its Oldsmar technical and research center while cutting costs through layoffs and by hiring outside contractors for some positions.

Nielsen is trying to navigate upheaval in its core business of measuring TV ratings, an industry where Nielsen has more competitors than any time in its past. Cable companies, for instance, now can offer direct ratings data from television set-top boxes, and the advent of digital video recorders is putting pressure on Nielsen to better track whether people skip commercials.

At the same time, Nielsen clients such as NBC or Procter & Gamble increasingly want the company to measure audiences who watch media online, on cell phones, in video games and elsewhere - leading Nielsen to invest heavily in new technology to track that viewing."

Nuts Day In Oldsmar

Update: Many thanks to ChiGal76

"Mission accomplished, Nors! Micky's truck showed up at 12:03 PM by my car's clock. There were a group of people standing outside in the loading bay looking nervous for about 20 minutes beforehand. Noon was a great time, because people were out on their lunch breaks. I parked near the loading bay. I missed the arrival of the Micky's truck because I didn't record it properly. THere were 2 HUGE bags of nuts on the back of this white panel truck with signs that said "NUTS TO NIELSEN: SAVE JERICHO" on it. If you ever want to see what 4000 lbs of peanuts look like...it's a lot, trust me. The word must have spread quickly because there were a BUNCH of Nielsen employees peeking through the sun screens to look out over the loading bay. I have videos of that and the America's Second Harvest truck arriving. I didn't see any tv cameras, but I did see newspaper photographers, but then, I escaped before the security people came out to the parking lot, lol."


Get your nuts here. There's still time.
The Nuts are coming to Oldsmar.



"On Eve Of TV Upfront, Nielsen Ratings Remain Unaccredited"

"That for the second year in a row, those billions of dollars in upfront advertising buys will be negotiated, bought and sold on the basis of somewhat shaky, and still unaccredited Nielsen TV ratings.

In the weeks leading up to this prelude to the upfront advertising marketplace, the Media Rating Council quietly met, reviewed a crucial audit of Nielsen's so-called C3 ratings system, and opted to withhold accreditation for what will be the currency for billions of dollars in TV advertising buys."


"When asked about why his network is doing so poorly in the ratings, president and chief executive officer of NBC Universal, Jeff Zucker told Television Week, "It's not just about the ratings anymore."

Just to be fair, Zucker explains that the ratings don't matter because the network is fulfilling the expectations of the advertisers. "We're in an era where - we've made a commitment to our advertisers to a schedule. Advertisers have an expectation. It's not just about the ratings anymore. It's about our relationship with our advertisers and what their expectations are."

Nuts, Nuts, and More Nuts

Special Note:

JerichoMonster will now be known as TheMonster. It no longer seems appropriate to use Jericho in the title as this blog is no longer only Jericho posts. Many people were confused by the old title and assumed only Jericho is covered here and TheMonster will cover a wide range of TV topics which include Jericho. The header will change tomorrow.


"Jericho’s Nutty Fans Protest Nielsen’s Ratings System"

Fantastic article with lots of links and lots about Nielsen flaws.


Hats off to NorsU.

Get your nuts here.

"For most people, it's just a bummer when a TV company cancels their favorite show. But fans of the now defunct CBS show "Jericho" are taking the loss of their show a bit harder.

They're fighting back, and the fight is coming to, of all unlikely places, Oldsmar.

"Jericho" devotees plan to picket the local office of TV ratings company Nielsen at noon Tuesday, and dump 4,000 pounds of peanuts on the company's property. Why Nielsen? "Jericho" fans say Nielsen uses faulty methods to measure TV ratings, and those ratings numbers doomed their beloved show.

"It's an antiquated rating system that does not count 99.999 percent of actual TV viewers," said Jonathan Whitesell, a "Jericho" fan and organizer of the protest, referring to the sampling method Nielsen uses to calculate total viewing of a show."

Nielsen In The News

"Oldsmar allows Nielsen to be lazy

How sad it is that the City Council in Oldsmar is so wishy washy with the Nielsen Co. (one or two did stand up, one being council member Janice Miller) and didn't stand up against what Nielsen is doing to its employees and stealing our tax money. (They took tax money on the promise of more jobs.)

Heaven knows the local Chamber of Commerce (I refer to it as the Chamber of Horrors) will not speak against Nielsen's bad choice of replacing its employees with people from another country. I think it's appalling that this company's only choice for increasing its profits is to bring in cheap alien workers."
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Stories of fired Nielsen employees:

"The day she was let go, Elliott said she asked new call center director Steve Houghton, "Do you mean to tell me, after 26 years, you don't have anything for me?"

He shook his head, Elliott said, and said, "No."

She was quickly ushered out a side door and not allowed to pick up personal belongings or say goodbye to co-workers.

Houghton started working for Nielsen on Feb. 4, according to the company. The firings started soon after.

Rose Schulz, 79, of Clearwater said after 16 years, it took about two minutes to be fired and ushered out the door.

"I'll need to work, will you give me a reference?" she said she asked Houghton.

"Number of years worked and your position," she remembers him saying. "That's standard."

Schulz doubts that years of service, attendance or work ethic were considered in letting people go.

"I think they've ruined a lot of people's lives without a thought," she said."

The Nielsen Monster

Here is some interesting reading. It's Nielsen's SEC filing. Pay particular attention to the section titled Executive Compensation.
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"Over the past seven years, the Nielsen Company has received at least $3.1-million in state and local subsidies to consolidate its Pinellas operations in a showcase facility in Oldsmar.

Much of that money was for creating high-wage local jobs.

Yet last year, Nielsen let go 240 Tampa-area employees, including many in Oldsmar. Now the company — formerly known as Nielsen Media Research — says the Oldsmar location is losing another 110 positions."



"OLDSMAR — City Council members expressed outrage Tuesday over the Nielsen Co.'s plans to eliminate 110 positions at their Oldsmar operation after accepting government money to create jobs.

"To think they have the gall to take taxpayers' money and then lay people off!" said council member Suzanne Vale. "I am so upset."

"It's just incomprehensible to me," agreed council member Janice Miller."