• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, August 7, 2007

In a surprise move that has left some customers scratching their heads on its implications, Nielsen Media Research Monday informed clients it would make yet another important change to its TV ratings process in September--one that would produce higher, "unduplicated" average audience ratings for the exact episodes of broadcast network and syndicated TV shows that air multiple times. Nielsen said the change, which will not affect cable TV programs, was being made as part of an overall strategy to "streamline" its ratings processes and to "harmonize" the average audience ratings between broadcast network and syndicated shows.

While Nielsen said it currently is rare that broadcast networks repeat the same episode--with the same commercial units in them--during the same weekly measurement interval, the move could lead to higher average ratings estimates for broadcast networks as they move to various forms of multicasting when the nation converts to digital broadcast spectrum in February 2009.

That practice is common among syndicated TV program distributors, who routinely air episodes of weekly programs multiple times during the same week to generate higher "gross average audience ratings." Nielsen said the change would not impact the way it computes gross average audience ratings for such syndicated shows, which would continue to include so-called "duplicated" viewing, or repeat viewing done by people living in the same households.

But the prospect of higher unduplicated ratings for broadcast programs that are aired multiple times has some cable network executives concerned about the long-term implications of the move, and the inequity of Nielsen's plans. "The Nielsen announcement is profoundly incomplete and leaves too much to the suspicious imagination," says one influential cable researcher.