Nielsen said Monday it was dropping its separate National Hispanic People Meter sample and will now generate Hispanic ratings via its National People Meter (NPM) sample, the same one it uses for English language networks.
That will give advertisers an apples-to-manzanas comparison of English and Spanish-language nets side by side.
Spanish-language networks began moving to the NPM sample in 2005, said Nielsen, which attributed its decision in part to the growth of ad spending and audience for Spanish-language media and to its improvement in recruiting and retaining Hispanic households in the national sample.
"Today, the sub-sample of Hispanic households within the NPM panel is both larger and more representative of the U.S. Hispanic population than the 1000-home National Hispanic People Meter panel that is being retired," said Nielsen in a statement announcing the change.
