Bhatia Leaves as Nielsen Re-Structures STB Arm

In the US, Manish Bhatia, Nielsen's President of Advanced Digital Services, has left the company, resulting in a re-structure which will see the firm integrate set-top-box (STB) data into its current audience measurement services.

Insider reports in the press say Bhatia left at the end of June because of 'growing frustration' at the length of time it is taking for Nielsen to implement some of its digital media audience measurement initiatives - particularly those for the TV industry's digital STB marketplace.

Bhatia was a long-time executive in Nielsen's TV ratings division. During his career with the firm he was part of the team that created NetRatings, and worked as Head of Global Operations for Nielsen Online.

Following his departure, Matt O'Grady - who leads Nielsen's development and improvement of cross-media platform, TV, online and mobile audience measurement - will be responsible for the firm's work to incorporate STB data into its national and multi-platform products.

Cheryl Idell will be responsible for STB data use for the firm's local products, while recent recruit Pat Dineen will manage Nielsen's STB data relationships with TV service providers.

In a statement, Nielsen says as part of its 'commitment to provide the most innovative and reliable audience measurement', it will continue to research and test the differences and limitations of STB data to determine how to best integrate it into its current measurements.

These tests will combine and compare Nielsen's current viewing data with STB data, to determine if the latter can help stabilize ratings and enable reporting of additional stations and regional networks.

Nielsen is currently analyzing STB data against three of its local TV measurement services: a people meter market (St Louis); a diary TV market, (Reno, Nev); and an STB market (Greenville, South Carolina).

Web site: www.nielsen.com .