TVB Wants Nielsen To Slow Broadband-Only Homes Inclusion In Local TV Ratings

• by Wayne Friedman , 3 hours ago

TVB, the TV advertising trade association, has a request for Nielsen.

It wants the media-measurement company to slow the inclusion of broadband-only homes into local market samples.

Instead, TVB wants Nielsen to focus on getting accreditation for meter markets to improve core accuracy of local TV station measurement.

“TVB and its members continue to implore Nielsen to both engage with the Media Ratings Council (MRC) for a review of the BBO integration plan and to delay the start of BBO integration until the panel’s health is repaired and approved,” stated Steve Lanzano, president-CEO, TVB.

Nielsen representatives did not respond to Television News Daily by press time.

Media agencies have long encouraged Nielsen to include broadband-only homes in its local TV measurement samples. Analysts say the push for the slower response is the fear of potential lower local TV station ratings.

In June 2020, Nielsen said it got continued accreditation by the Media Rating Council for all 25 Local People Meter (LPM) market service markets and 19 of 31 U.S. set-based TV meter markets.

While household set-based TV meter estimates remain certified for all 31 set-based markets, person-demographic estimates in 12 remaining markets do not.

Since 2013, Nielsen has planned for efforts to include broadband-only households into its local TV ratings service. Then for the 2014-15 TV season, it agreed to delay that inclusion, seemingly after demands made by the National Association of Broadcasters and its Committee on Nationwide Television Audience Measurement.