The spat between the networks and Nielsen is escalating.
On Thursday, the Video Advertising Bureau — a trade organization represents the networks — formally requested that Nielsen submit to an audit by Ernst and Young “to verify the accuracy” of the company’s data dating back to March of last year.
Nielsen has refused the request, saying in a statement Friday that it already undergoes “a comprehensive audit process with the Media Rating Council on an annual basis. … Our work with the MRC, the independent body created for this very reason, is ongoing and should serve the purpose of an independent audit.”
The VAB believes Nielsen has been under-counting television audiences due to COVID-related changes to its measurement process, alleging that the company stopped sending field agents into panelists’ homes to ensure that its technology was working correctly and that it failed to remove unoccupied homes from its sample.
The result, per the VAB, was an increase in the number of “zero-viewing TV homes” and a one-fifths reduction in the size of Nielsen’s panel.
It bears noting that while Nielsen ratings are often reported as if a census of the viewing population, the numbers are based on Nielsen’s sample of television homes. As described by the AP, the VAB believes that the “number of families, particularly large families, participating in Nielsen measurements has dropped over the past year in percentages similar to the decrease in viewership. … Nielsen acknowledges that its sample size is smaller … but said statistics are being weighted to account for the change.”
The networks have long held grievances about Nielsen, a private company that has at times struggled to adapt to the changing television landscape. Nielsen only last year began incorporating out-of-home viewing into its final nationals — a process that itself has its skeptics — and plans next year to unveil a new ratings measure that takes into account viewing across all platforms and devices.
Television ratings have declined virtually across the board dating back to the beginning of COVID-19 restrictions in March of last year. That includes steep year-over-year declines for a host of sporting events and awards shows and a steady slide in the number of homes watching television generally.
[News from Variety 4.15, 4.16, Hollywood Reporter 4.15, The Wrap 4.15, 4.16, AP 4.13]
