MRC Audit Uncovers 'Accuracy Issues' With Broadband-Only, Recommends Nielsen Hold Off
- by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, December 23, 2021
With Nielsen moving forward with one of
the biggest changes in the way it calculates U.S. audience estimates -- adding viewing from broadband-only households -- the Media Rating Council (MRC) announced findings of a just-completed audit of
its broadband-only homes, implying that it "uncovered" material problems that should be addressed …
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"We are concerned about the accuracy of Nielsen’s measurement of these homes at the present time, based on our audit’s findings", looks like troubling times are continuing to linger for Neilsen, it is the beginning of competing service in TV measurement to be taken more seriously?
If Nielsen's definion of what constitutes a BBO home is in doubt this raises the question about what DMA universe is Nielsen using to project "impressions" for the TV stations. Is it all "TV" capable homes or is it only those homes with working TV sets? In short, are BBO homes excluded from the projections?If they are excluded---even if these homes contain mostly light viewers---won't this reduce the number of "impressions" the stations claim to deliver for advertisers? And speaking about inflation---or deflation---of local market TV audiences, I assume that everyone knows by now that the local market "impressions" include anyone who zaps a commercial and are "total audience" figures per quarter hour---not average minute "audiences". So it's quite possible for the same "viewer" to be counted for more than one station when the channel is switched during a quarter hour interval.. How many agencies make adjustments to acccount for the discrepancies between local market and national Nielsen "ratings"? One can only guess. And how comparable are local market TV "impressions" to digital page views? LOL on that one.