Nielsen Pulls November Cable Estimates, Cites Potential 'Issue'

Nielsen this weekend disclosed a potential problem affecting its national TV ratings for November.

The issue was revealed after analysts published reports discussing November cable universe trends. As a result, Nielsen said it has “removed the November 2016 cable universe estimates file.”

Nielsen did not identify what the problem is, but said it was conducting an “internal review” of the issue to determine the veracity of its November ratings and would alert and update clients when it has more information.

An analysis of the data originally released showed a 1.4% decline in cable network households versus November 2015.

The cable decline came amid a 1.7% increase in overall TV households, making it “the worst gap in more than two years,” according to the analysis by Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser, who later withdrew his analysis following Nielsen’s revelation of a cable universe “issue.”

“We will revisit once Nielsen has finalized their data,” he wrote.

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