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Nielsen Halts Commercial Ratings Release Yet Again

Published on November 06, 2006 | Email this article

Nielsen has yet again delayed release of its commercial ratings, this time indefinitely, until it can solve the battle over whether time-shifting viewing should be included in the new metric.

Nielsen had originally planned to release its commercial minute ratings in Nov., but then delayed release until Dec. 11. In the meantime, the media research company planned to review the subject of commercial minute ratings with its clients during a series of meetings in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles, writes MediaPost.

Nielsen’s commercial ratings had apparently been seen by television networks as a way to re-integrate time-shifted viewing - that is, playback viewing using DVRs - into their advertising deals. Most agencies have refused to consider time-shifted viewing when negotiating deals due to concerns about commercial skipping during playback.

The commercial minute ratings have run into a number of snags, including the fact that the American Association of Advertising Agencies wanted VCR data removed from the data stream, and that the cable TV industry was unhappy with the way the data was collected.

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