Nielsen: Boston’s Ratings Problems Bigger than We Thought

Recently, Nielsen has reported two glitches in its A/P (active/passive) encoding system. Now, the company has discovered that one of the problems with its meters - which failed to properly credit viewing for three Patriots games simulcast on Boston’s WCVB and ESPN - is more widespread than initially thought.

The ratings company has admitted that it will have to recalculate and reprocess ratings from Jan. 1 to Jan. 9 for Hearst-Argyle Television’s two stations in Boston, writes Mediaweek.

The problem is the second in as many months. As with the first, Nielsen blamed a malfunctioning of its “active” station encoder and a simultaneous failure of the “passive” monitoring system on the station’s end. Because of the malfunction, Boston’s WCVB’s ratings were understated and the ratings for WMUR, which covers just 17 percent of the Boston DMA, were overstated.

Nielsen says it has fixed the software that was causing the problems on its end, switched WCVB to a new media monitoring site that can better track reference codes, and developed a plan that will help the company identify such situations more quickly.

WCVB said the problem kept the station from being able to sell inventory at suitably high rates and caused it to unnecessarily give bonus weight to advertisers.

After the Boston glitch was originally discovered, Nielsen sent a letter to clients reminding them that achieving proper ratings was partly their responsibility. “While Nielsen wants to work with you to minimize any such occurrence at your station in the future, it is ultimately your responsibility to encode properly,” the letter read.

Some Nashville and Denver stations have also reported problems with ratings.