Developing markets, an investment priority for Nielsen, were up 19% in the final quarter of the year, Calhoun said. MEMRB, the retail measurement business bought in February, gives the company new or additional positions in 30 developing markets, while adding half-a-point of topline growth for 2011, he said.

Nielsen’s revenue for 2010 was $5.13bn, up 6.1% on a constant currency basis, with Q4 sales up 7.2% to $1.37bn.

In its ‘buy’ division, which tracks and analyses consumer purchase behaviour, annual revenue improved 8.2% to $3.26bn, with product forecasting, modelling and other analytics services growing 15% to $972m and retail measurement up 5.4% to $2.29bn. Adjusted earnings before interest, tax and other deductibles (EBITDA) was up 8.9% to $711m.

The ‘watch’ media research arm was up 3.7% to $1.7bn, with adjusted EBITDA up 4.2% to $649m.