LOS ANGELES (AP) — Univision Communications Inc. said Nov. 29 that it has dropped a lawsuit against Nielsen Media Research Inc. over the latter’s new TV rating system, which the Spanish-language broadcaster claimed miscounts its viewers.
In a joint statement, Nielsen also said it had withdrawn a counterclaim filed in California.
Univision spokeswoman Brooke Morganstein declined to comment beyond the statement.
In its lawsuit, Univision claimed that Nielsen’s “Local People Meter” television rating system, which substitutes electronic devices for paper “diaries” to measure TV watching habits, dramatically undercounts young Hispanics and large Hispanic families and overstates Hispanic households that speak mostly or only English.
The ratings are used by local stations to set advertising rates.
Nielsen, which has a monopoly on counting TV viewers, has been gradually switching to the electronic system for measuring local viewing habits. It contends that the system is far more accurate.
The firm launched the rating system in Los Angeles in July, despite Univision’s efforts to obtain a court order blocking it.
The firm already uses the system nationally and in several local markets, including New York, Chicago and Boston. It plans to expand the ratings system next year into several other markets, including Philadelphia, Dallas and Washington, D.C.
Nielsen and Entertainment Law Weekly are owned by Dutch market research firm VNU NV.
