• Wall Street Journal, Monday, December 5, 2011 1:47 PM

Nielsen says its prior estimate of an overall increase in children's TV ratings this fall was incorrect -- but it still stands by its report that ratings for Nickelodeon declined sharply this fall.

Instead of increasing by 1.7%, the number of kids aged 2 to 11 watching television in Q3 declined by 2.9% compared to last fall, Nielsen said, citing an error it found after Viacom, Nickelodeon's owner, questioned Nielsen numbers. But the company stands by its data otherwise -- data that "comes at a sensitive time for [Nickelodeon]," since "the holiday season is typically when marketers target holiday ads to children and their parents," writes Sam Schechner.

This is the second mistake Nielsen has acknowledged in the past week. On Wednesday, its clients learned about a software glitch affecting how usage of devices like DVD players is tracked. It said the error  "didn't affect underlying data, nor did it affect ratings for TV channels," writes Schechner.

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