Nielsen stops PRISM Data System

“Given the nation's serious economic state, Nielsen and its clients have decided this is not the right environment to launch a national syndicated service,” the company said in the statement.

 The move comes just over a month after
Walmart Stores, an original backer of the effort and a charter member
of the industry consortium of retailers and manufacturers behind it,
said it wouldn't participate in the national rollout of PRISM or
continue to waive its ban on sharing sales data with market-research
firms as part of the project, as it had done since 2007.

Nielsen said it will keep providing
custom work measuring and analyzing shopper marketing "until a
syndicated service is financially viable for many of our clients."