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NBC’s Cable Networks Opt out of Commercial Ratings

On Monday, NBC’s group of cable networks, which includes Bravo, USA and Sci Fi, announced that it will not participate in Nielsen’s commercial ratings system.

The announcement comes after a series of meetings between Nielsen, cable executives, media buyers and broadcast networks, during which buyers and cable networks have charged that Nielsen’s system has several flaws. However, the cable nets and Nielsen are both quick to say that they are working toward a solution that resolves their points of disagreement, writes Media Life.

Some of the main concerns of cable executives is that the system won’t give accurate readings of commercial viewing because it relies on one-minute averages taken during the airing of commercial groups, or “pods.” Some believe those one-minute increments are too long. Magna Global USA’s top researcher, Steve Sternberg, believes that one-second increments are what’s needed.

Others point out that they will overlap to include parts of shows in which the ads appear. They are also bothered that Nielsen’s system won’t differentiate between national and local ads.

Nielsen had originally planned to begin releasing data from commercial minutes in Nov. The date has been pushed back to Dec., and will be in a test phase until the measurement company can receive enough input from participants on how the system is working.

The data will not be used in negotiating ad buys when the program launches in test phase in Dec. When that will happen is still up in the air.

TNS Media Intelligence claims that its own data will make more sense for reporting commercial ratings than Nielsen. “There are two pieces of the puzzle that need to be integrated,” Steven Fredericks, president-CEO of TNS is quoted as saying in MediaPost. “One is the audience piece, which is what Nielsen does. But the other piece is when the commercial occurrences appear during the program.” Commercial occurrence, he adds, is TNS’s core business, which it has been doing for 80 years.