New Delhi: Nielsen has lost the industry approval for its national TV rating service after the board of the US-based Media Rating Council (MRC) suspended its accreditation. The decision was taken during a regular audit of audience measurement agencies done by MRC to ensure they comply with the industry standards.
Nielsen had in fact, requested for a hiatus from the current accreditation process so that it could “focus on innovating its core products, and deliver data that industry can rely on”, amid the latest complaints from TV networks. The request was however turned down by the media industry’s measurement watchdog, which holds the measurement organisations to standards on behalf of the media sector.
The suspension of the decades-old track record of measuring the TV business comes after a long standoff between Nielsen and the networks over the former’s services. Some TV executives had highlighted certain discrepancies in the data shared by the company during the pandemic, resulting in an undercounting of the audiences. In July, the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) which represented TV networks had also requested MRC to suspended its accreditation, citing these discrepancies. Nielsen, on the other hand, had requested for a hiatus from the accreditation process to concentrate on its audit-related efforts on continuing to address panel concerns.
While Nielsen’s measurement will still be released, it will operate without a sort of “seal of approval” by the industry that uses it, for the first time since the 1960s. This could encourage advertisers and TV networks to seek alternate means of counting their audiences.
“While we are disappointed with the outcome, the suspension will not impact the usability of our data. Nielsen remains the currency of choice for media companies, advertisers, and agencies. We are committed to the audit process and during this pause in the accreditation we will work with the MRC on resolving this suspension,” Nielsen said in a statement, adding that it will also take the opportunity to focus on innovating its core products and creating a better media future for the entire industry.
Meanwhile, the fast-paced changes in the TV industry have also led major organisations to look for new yardsticks as their audiences venture into new digital territories amid the OTT boom. “We have become increasingly concerned with inaccuracies and irregularities in the data reported by Nielsen, and urged them to more quickly pivot their processes and practices to fix known issues,” Disney’s ad-sales unit said in a statement, Variety reported.
As more consumers migrate from linear TV to OTTs, the demand has been growing for TV measurement agencies to innovate and upgrade to fulfill the new demands of the TV industry and capture audiences as they move from screen to screen.
