Digital Smiles
The Media Ratings Council (MRC) has restored accreditation for Nielsen’s national TV ratings after a 19-month suspension. This comes ahead of the 2023-24 upfronts, the period advertisers can buy inventory before a season begins. However, the company’s local ratings remain unaccredited.
Karthik Rao, CEO, Audience Measurement at Nielsen, said in a statement, “As the industry demands measurement that is trusted, independent and founded on real viewing from real people, we continue to support the MRC guidelines that set the standard for quality, audited measurement. It’s our daily mission to maintain our methodologies at the highest standard so that our clients can trade with confidence well into the future.”
The suspension of accreditation was beneficial for marketers as it opened the door to competitors. NBCUniversal, Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery have all announced they are working with other data providers, including Comscore Inc. and startups such as VideoAmp, iSpot.tv and EDO. This increased competition means better service.
The MRC suspended Nielsen’s accreditation in September 2021 due to two reasons. Firstly, the council found the company undercounted TV viewers during the pandemic because technicians were unable to enter panelists’ homes to fix devices. Secondly, Nielsen reported a software error had caused it to undercount out-of-home viewership for nearly six months.
The suspension came at a time when TV viewership had already been decreasing. Major network broadcast ratings had dropped more than 80% since 2011, according to SpoilerTV. The share of Americans who watch television via cable or satellite has also plummeted from 76% in 2015 to 56% in 2021, according to a Pew survey.
The accreditation of Nielsen’s national TV ratings is a welcome development and should help advertisers to trade with confidence. It also increases competition, which will hopefully result in higher quality data and better service.
Originally reported by Martech: https://martech.org/nielsens-national-tv-ratings-gets-accreditation-back-after-19-month-suspension/
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