by Joe Mandese @mp_joemandese, 8 hours ago 
As Nielsen prepares to make the biggest changes to its national TV ratings methods since it introduced the people meter in 1987, some of its biggest customers -- broadcast and cable networks -- held a vote to determine whether they should put pressure on Nielsen to delay the move past this fall when it is scheduled to start.
The vote, which was organized by the newly anointed Video Advertising Bureau (VAB, formerly the Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau), failed to reach a consensus and the bureau resolved to take no official stance, but to continue monitoring the situation as the new ratings begin to impact the marketplace.
The methods, which are part of Nielsen's "NPX," or National Panel Expansion plan, include a particularly controversial one that would expand part of its ratings sample by mathematically modeling viewing behavior to represent the viewing of people not participating in the sample.
Regardless of the soundness of the methods, which Nielsen executives have maintained are necessary given the rapid fragmentation of TV -- and ultimately “video” -- viewing, their impact could be profound, causing some networks to increase or lose share based on the mathematical shifts. Since advertising budgets generally correlate to audience shares, those shifts could create substantial disruption in advertising budgets and so-called “makegoods” -- commercial time given as compensation to advertisers for failing to meet their audience guarantees.
The vote, which the VAB characterized as having “little consistency and no-near consensus,” included four possible recommendation to Nielsen: 1) Do nothing and leave the sample expansion launch in place for this September, 2) delay it until January 2016, 3) delay it to September 2016, 4) or scrap the sample expansion plan altogether. By not reaching a consensus, the group effectively voted for option No. 1, because as one VAB member explained: “Nielsen plans to move forward come hell or high water.”
While the VAB vote would have largely been symbolic, a more important vote is set to take place at some undetermined time in the future, which could have more material impact: The national television committee of industry self-regulatory ratings watchdog, the Media Rating Council. Many of the executives participating in the VAB vote are also members of the MRC committee, which has been in the process of evaluating Nielsen’s sample expansion methods, including one or several audits by independent auditors, to decide whether or not to accredit Nielsen’s national TV ratings.
While it has no regulatory weight, MRC accreditation is recognized as an important stamp of industry approval on the soundness of doing business based on ratings methods audited by the council.
It’s also unclear when the MRC will actually complete its audit of Nielsen’s new methods, but executives familiar with the process say it now seems unlikely it will be completed in time for the launch of the new fall TV season, which would technically mean this would be the first TV season ever to begin with unaccredited ratings since the MRC was created in the 1960s following Congressional hearings on TV ratings and a U.S. Department of Justice review that led to a consent decree that formed the MRC.
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