>>Since the 1950s, Nielsen ratings have been the gold standard for measuring television audiences. The formula used to be simple: More viewers watching a TV show equals more valuable commercial time equals more ad revenue for networks and local stations.

Now Nielsen Media Research, which dominates the television industry and its estimated $60 billion in advertising, faces new technology and new viewing habits. Measuring audiences in an age of digital distribution-via the Internet, digital video recorders (DVRs) or other means-is changing the way Nielsen does business, according to company spokesman Gary Holmes.

"In the old days, you used to just measure the family in the house watching television live. Now, people watch TV in different places, [and] they watch it at different times from when it is broadcast," Holmes says.

In the Naples-Fort Myers market, TV ratings are measured in two ways. The older method is with diaries: booklets in which members of Nielsen households tally the times, channels and programs they watch. More recently, some information comes from meters attached to TV sets in Nielsen households that record what is viewed.

The metering method costs each participating local commercial TV

station approximately $30,000 a month, according to Bob Beville, director of sales for Waterman Broadcasting, operator of NBC2 and ABC7.

Advertisers aren't convinced of the data's reliability, however. With DVR services, such as TiVo, viewers record shows to watch later, and they fast-forward through commercials.

"We're up to about 12 or 13 percent of the population having DVRs and that's growing," Holmes says. "Among DVR households, up to one-half of all of the programs [viewed] are watched via DVR."

In addition, a growing number of channel-surfers just won't sit through a lengthy stream of ads, DVR or no DVR. Gary Firestone, CEO of Firestone & Cimring Advertising in Fort Myers, says commercial breaks used to run about 90 seconds. Now, with more instances of three to four minutes of back-to-back ads, many viewers switch channels and spend a few minutes or more watching another show.

"Thirty percent of TV is now advertising," Firestone says. "People are flipping those remotes, so the problem is: How do we know if they are watching the commercials?"

In May, Nielsen plans to offer a new system to better identify how many viewers stick around for the commercials. While offered only at the national level, it could benefit local advertisers who run commercial spots during network programming.

Meanwhile, TiVo has announced its new StopWatch service. Using its 4.5 million subscribers, TiVo will measure both real-time and time-shifted viewing of both TV programs and commercials.

Many industry watchers expect to see shorter commercial breaks in the future if these new measures prove many viewers aren't watching them now.

Advertisers are also learning a new trick: DVR-friendly ads with larger logos that stay on the screen longer. "That way, if [viewers] are fast-forwarding, they still see who the advertiser is," Beville says.

As more media outlets try to spread their reach, people are watching their favorite TV shows, sports events and evening newscasts via the Internet on a variety of screens, including cell phones, PDAs and computers. Fans of Grey's Anatomy, for instance, can catch the show on the ABC network's Web site or download episodes to their iPod.

Meanwhile, Southwest Florida stations are posting video from their newscasts online. The region's two major newspapers are also beginning to offer video on their Web sites.

As they work to position clients' ads, advertising agencies want reliable data on how many people are actually using the various platforms.

"In the old days, you could just rely on television and newspapers and be pretty comfortable you were reaching your target market," says Mary Shallies, president of AdSource, a Bonita Springs-based ad agency. "You can't do that anymore."

Nielsen is well aware that the Internet is becoming a major way to view TV programming as well as advertising. In February, the company announced it had acquired NetRatings, a Web-

audience measurement firm.

Nielsen is also working on an initiative it calls "anywhere, anytime media measurement," aka A2/M2, which measures streaming video, particularly network shows, broadcast on the Internet-though Holmes expects that project won't be ready for a couple of years.

Moves like this will be critical to maintaining the trust-and business-of the nation's many TV stations, ad agencies and advertisers.