Nielsen’s lag is ‘indefensible’, says TV Trade Group

The entire TV world is struggling with Gauge Rage.

Nielsen’s recent decision to postpone its popular “Gauge” snapshot of viewing on linear and digital platforms has outraged a trade group that represents national TV networks to advertisers.

Nielsen said last week it would delay publishing the February results of its popular table after some customers were alarmed by a drop in streaming audiences following a decision by the measurement giant to add new data to its mix.

“Nielsen’s announcements to delay their February Gauge report (with the expected spike in TV viewership), as well as returning the Gauge calculation to a method that has now been proven to undervalue all TV forms during the prior season, are both indefensible manipulations that are completely inconsistent with the role of an honest and neutral provider of metrics and currency data,” said Sean Cunningham, CEO of the Video Advertising Bureau, a veteran trade group that acts as a proxy for the TV networks in the dealings with Madison Avenue, in a prepared statement.

It involved the rollout earlier this year of new data showing how U.S. households connect to and consume TV, use video-enabled digital devices, and interact with and share streaming media and e-commerce accounts. The survey, known as DASH, is a syndicated study conducted in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago, a polling firm. Nielsen had previously told customers that use of the data could result in a one-time expansion of the number of households, or “universe,” that watch cable and broadcast television, and a possible reduction in the total audience that watches streaming.

But the rise in linear cable and broadcast viewing — boosted by February’s broadcasts of the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics on NBC and Peacock — has alarmed many streamers, all of whom have seen their fortunes soar while bringing in scores of new broadband viewers. The push and pull behind the scenes of the Gauge shows that Nielsen must serve a new generation of customers – companies like Amazon, Roku and Netflix – that can be just as challenging as traditional customers like CBS, Fox and NBC.

Nielsen suggested the VAB’s anger could be misplaced. “The VAB membership includes Nielsen’s competitors and part of the ad-supported video industry, so it is no surprise that they are misleading,” Nielsen said in a statement. “Let’s be clear: that is the change that the VAB is fighting for al part of the Nielsen currency. We’ve been using it since February in our TV ratings, which is what networks and advertisers buy and sell against. The only methodological break comes with The Gauge, a free monthly report. The advertising industry in general does not use The Gauge to sell advertising or guarantee ad buys. That is what our currency ratings are intended for.”

In his statement, Cunningham accused Nielsen of “clear manipulation and industry bias,” saying the decision clouds the view of traditional television’s robust performance in an era when streamers are steadily gaining audiences.

“The deliberate slowing and suppression of February’s television ratings – which include both a Super Bowl and an archetypal American Olympics – is more than just public pandering to Google, or an escalation of Nielsen’s thumb on the meter scale while encouraging YouTube boom/TV gloom; this level of manipulation seems to me to be a clear interference in the markets,” Cunningham said.

In a letter to customers issued last week, Nielsen Chief Client Officer Peter Naylor said Nielsen would drop the Gauge to integrate “methodology updates” into its measurement technology.

The Donnybrook measurement is the latest rift between Nielsen and its media customer base. TV networks believe that Nielsen’s recent move to update its long-running panels with data from interactive TV has created significant problems for cable network mapping, especially when it comes to calculating critical viewership demos of people between 18 and 49 or 25 and 54. Advertisers are keeping a close eye on these two groups: the former in entertainment programming and the latter in news programming.