Beam Me Up, Nielsen

By Steve McClellan -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/6/2004 1:14:00 PM

Nielsen Media Research has added four new members to the task force advising the research company on issues dealing with the measurement of minority audiences to TV programs.

They include veteran TV and film actor George Takei (Sulu on the original Star Trek series) who serves on the board of the East West Players, the Asian Pacific American theater company. Takei resides in Los Angeles.

Others are Mario Baeza, chairman of the Baeza Group, a Latino-owned alternative investment firm, and TCW/Latin American Partners, a Latin-American Private Equity firm in partnership with Trust Company of the West; Daniel Villanueva, a longtime television executive who is now Managing Partner of Bastion Capital Corporation in Los Angeles; and Karen Watson, Vice President of Government Relations for EchoStar Communications in Washington.

Nielsen said the task force, which is looking into allegations of minority undercounting by Nielsen's Local People Meters, would have its first meeting in early July.