IS MOVING FEB. 2009 SWEEPS TO MARCH, MADNESS?

Am I the only one bothered by Nielsen's move from February 2009 sweeps to March 2009?

The announcement from Nielsen came as a surprise. Nielsen plans to make the move to avoid "potential disruptions" associated with the switch to digital on Feb. 17.

So why am I bothered by a minor move in measuring viewers?

The schedules of our CBS affiliates in the Mountain time zone will be totally disrupted due to the CBS’s March Madness coverage.

Consider this:

• 20 percent of Monday-Friday early news will not run.
  
  
• 20 percent of Monday-Friday prime access will not run.
  
  
• 50 percent of regularly scheduled CBS Thursday primetime will not run.
  
  
• 50 percent of regularly scheduled CBS Friday primetime will not run.
  
  
• 10 percent of regularly scheduled CBS daytime programming will not run.
  
  
• There is a high probability that the late newscasts will start late.

These disruptions aren't new to CBS affiliates as the NCAA March Madness tournament has been our franchise for decades—but never before in a rating period.

Here are just some of the questions the move raises for my stations and other CBS affiliates whose ratings for the first quarter of 2009 will be based on the diary entries in the single month of March.

• Will the March book be an accurate reflection of our first quarter?
  
  
• Doesn’t the move give our competitors’ early and late news programming a ratings advantage?
  
  
• Aren't some CBS primetime programs at a disadvantage as the number of sampling nights are cut in half?
  
  
• What effect does the higher-than-normal male viewership during March Madness have on other affiliates?
  
  
• What is the effectiveness of a March book for any station as its mail dates will only be weeks before the May sweeps begin?
  
  
• What kind of disruption does this cause for the networks if they scramble to stunt March programming?

TV stations have invested millions of dollars in equipment anticipating this mandated change to digital. The value of airtime that stations allocate to educate the viewing public is expensive but necessary and in our best interest. It's hard to believe that February 2009 will catch many viewers off guard.

I'd much rather see a February sweeps period and get a representative sample of what happens during the digital conversion.

Isn't the whole purpose of Nielsen to statistically measure a representative sample of the markets television viewing for a period of time?  We've already crossed the digital line. Now it's time to see what happens.

It seems that the ones most disrupted by the March sweeps won't be Nielsen, but us, the client.

Talk about March Madness.

Tim Keating is general sales manager of KTVQ Billings, Mont. He is also responsible for national and political sales for the four other stations in Cordillera Communications’ Montana group: KPAX Missoula-Kalispell, KRTV Great Falls, KXLF Butte-Bozeman and KXLH Helena. You may e-mail him at tkeating@ktvq.com.