Concerning the Discovery of Television Viewer Ratings Monitors Influenced by Outside Third Party
October 24, 2003
- Video Research greatly regrets the occurrence of this
incident. We greatly regret that our forty years of experience in maintaining
the confidentiality of television viewer rating monitors, and the integrity
of ratings data, was unable to prevent an outside party from influencing
certain monitors. We wish to express this regret to all members of the
industry, including those connected with television broadcasting, their
sponsors, advertising companies, and all others affected.
- Video Research has always recognized the importance of
protecting monitor confidentiality to prevent the possibility of such
a third party attack on the integrity of its data, and has always taken
the utmost care to prevent such an occurrence. In August 2002, Video Research
became aware of such an attack, and considering legal action against the
offending organization or individual, ordered them to cease such activities.
In addition, Video Research contacted all monitors and immediately removed
and replaced the affected monitors in the television view ratings research
system.
- Video Research continues to take every possible precaution to manage the confidentiality of the ratings monitor list throughout all aspects of our daily operations. In addition, we maintain a department dedicated to analyzing the viewing record of every monitor on a daily basis. In respect of this incident, we have also established a Special Committee tasked to review the incident and ensure that all necessary actions are taken to prevent a reoccurrence.
