Beautifully engraved specimen certificate from the Nielsen Media Research, Inc. printed in 1996. This historic document has an ornate border around it with a vignette of a group of people surrounded by media equipment with posted rating's numbers. This item has the printed signature of the company's president. Nielsen Media Research, the famous TV ratings company, is the leading provider of television information services in the U.S. and Canada, serving national and local customers including television networks and affiliates, independent stations, syndicators, cable networks, cable systems, advertisers and their agencies. The company has headquarters in New York City and offices in major markets across the United States and Canada. Nielsen Media Research and ACNielsen are separate subsidiaries of Netherlands-based VNU. VNU is one of the world's leading media and information companies. VNU was founded in 1964 through the merger of two Dutch publishing companies. In the 1960's, the primary operations were publishing, printing and distributing consumer magazines, newspapers and books in The Netherlands and Belgium. In 1999 the company acquired Nielsen Media Research.