The company began measuring television audiences in 1950, at a time when the medium was just getting off the ground.

The challenge of accurately measuring audiences is not limited to radio.

And that is spurring most of the major media, along with many large research companies, to improve how they measure audiences.

Such improvements, however, would require more accurate methods to measure audiences.

Could Kolessar find a less expensive way to measure television and radio audiences at the same time?

Still, he said the decision meant that Nielsen would once again have a monopoly on the business of measuring national television audiences.

For the past few months, Arbitron has been taking a distinctly unorthodox approach to measuring audiences.

Some advertisers are re-evaluating their buying strategies and demanding new ways of measuring audiences.

Networked Insights measures online audiences, and released a report ranking television shows, based on people's interactions within social media.

Nielsen has enjoyed a virtual and highly lucrative monopoly in measuring national television audiences.