The controversy surrounding Nielsen’s undercount of viewership in the COVID-19 era has not only failed to subside, it seems to be intensifying.
The Media Rating Council has pulled its accreditation of Nielsen, the latest consequence of the television networks’ rising dissatisfaction with the ratings company. The Video Advertising Bureau — an industry group that represents the networks — had previously asked the MRC to pull Nielsen’s accreditation over the company’s undercounting of viewership over the past 18 months, citing “major and persistent violations.”
As reported earlier this year, the VAB believes that Nielsen allowed its panel to degrade in quality due to COVID-19-related changes in its measurement process, namely the company’s decision to stop letting field agents enter panelists’ homes to ensure that equipment was working properly.
Nielsen, which in May admitted to undercounting February viewership, had previously requested that its accreditation be paused, rather than revoked.
In order to have its accreditation restored, Nielsen will have to return its panel size to “target levels” — 41,600 homes by the first quarter of next year. The company said Wednesday that it has already added 2,500 homes since March of this year and that it plans to expand the sample 15% beyond the target level by 2023. It also said it has resumed having field agents enter panelists’ homes.
Nielsen admitted it had not been “as fast” or “as transparent” as it could have been in reporting issues with the panel.
The revocation will kick in with the start of the new television season later this month. The lack of accreditation will not prevent Nielsen from continuing to measure television ratings, though as Variety noted, it will be operating “without a sort of ‘seal of approval’ by the industry.”
Wednesday’s news comes as NBC has been publicly seeking an alternative to Nielsen, sending a proposal last month to more than 50 companies — including Nielsen — to create a new measurement model. In a statement Monday, NBC executive Kelly Abcarian — formerly of Nielsen — said “we need all our industry’s builders — including Nielsen — to architect an entirely new blueprint.”
