Women across the world are expanding beyond traditional roles to influence decisions in the home, in business and in politics. Marketers have a massive opportunity to better connect women with the products they buy and the media technologies they use to make a positive impact both in their lives and in the bottom line.

As part of a national program to boost private and philanthropic involvement in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education, President Barack Obama has announced a new CEO-led initiative involving The Nielsen Company.

Testifying at a public forum of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Susan Whiting, Vice Chair of The Nielsen Company, urged the body to tread carefully in evaluating the need for regulating emerging online and mobile video platforms.

Over the past two decades, expanding global supply, shortened product life cycles, an abundance of precision data and new interactive and social media have dramatically empowered consumers.

As a preview of key media themes for the 2010 CES, Nielsen Executive Vice President and Vice Chair Susan Whiting recorded a podcast with UpNext at CES, to discuss time-shifting, consumer choice and how ratings are becoming smarter across all three screens.

On Friday, May 22, Nielsen Vice Chair Susan Whiting sat down with Fox Business News to discuss the latest television viewership data, which shows that Americans are watching more TV than ever.

On May 28, Susan Whiting also published an editorial for The Huffington Post.

Viewing of video on television, Internet and mobile devices — the Three Screens — continues to increase and has hit record levels.  Nielsen’s fourth quarter A2/M2 Three Screen Report reports that the average American watches more than 151 hours of TV per month, an all-time high.  They are also watching several hours of video on other devices: those who watch it on the Internet consume another 3 hours of online video per month, and those who use mobile video watch nearly 4 hours per month on mobile phones and other devices.
“The …

China’s export-driven economy has slowed as a result of the global recession. With a drop in exports and a growing unemployment rate, the Chinese government is urging consumers to spend in order to spur the economy. While various stimulus plans are being investigated, the nation’s success may rely as much on altering cultural dynamics as replacing economic models.

Susan Whiting, Vice Chair, Nielsen
In 2005, Congress mandated that television stations switch from analog to digital signals in 2009. The purpose of this switch was to increase the efficient use of the spectrum, to expand consumer choice for video programming, and to increase the amount of spectrum available for public safety and other wireless services.  In addition, Congress was able to raise nearly $20 billion by auctioning the analog spectrum that has been used for broadcast television.
The switch to all-digital television broadcasting, which was originally scheduled to occur on February …

According to Nielsen, more than 6.5 million U.S. households – or 5.7 percent of all homes — are not ready for the upcoming transition to all-digital broadcasting and would be unable to receive any television programming at all if the transition occurred today. This is an improvement of 1.3M homes since Nielsen reported readiness status at the end of December.
“Nielsen has been preparing for the transition to digital television for more than two years,” said Nielsen Vice Chair Susan Whiting. “Because we recognize that accurate and reliable information …