Nielsen Puts National Ratings Accreditation On 'Hiatus'
- by Wayne Friedman , August 12, 2021
Due to TV usage undercounting of its national TV panel stemming from pandemic-related disruption, Nielsen has put its accreditation for its national TV ratings into a “hiatus” process with the Media Rating Council.
“We believe that moving to a hiatus allows us to concentrate our audit-related efforts on continuing to …
Yes, Wayne, Nielsen deserves to be spanked---and it's getting a lot of this recently. But Nielsen will remain the audience currency for TV and much of AVOD as well because of its long standing expertise in this area and the failure of any alternative supplier---there have been numerous attempts in the past--to demonstrate that Nielsen is producing a substantially inaccurate picture of how the various shows and networks are doing. While I agree with the VAB and the networks that Nielsen should be more forthcoming and open about whatever it is doing, I assume that this will shortly be evident when Nielsen and the MRC once again begin working together.
As I keep pointing out, Nielsen's ratings are the "spice" that feeds national TV ad sales---and local, too, for that matter. And Nielsen's methodology routinely inflates the audience projections that constitute the "currency" that it supplies. For example, it is clear---and has been for many years, that average commercial minute viewer tallies for national TV overstate actual commercial viewing by at least 100% and probably more. I don't blame Nielsen for this as it was forced into this "metric" by the agencies some years ago. It's methodology simply can't provide such information---yet it is accepted blindly as audience currency. Accordingly, an "understatement" of "viewing" of 2-5% caused by bad decisions by Nielsen execs when the pandemic hit, while clearly a mistake, does not seem like a total disaster. The networks and time buyers will, somehow survive.