As widely reported in AdAge, Adweek, and The Wall Street Journal, in July VAB formally requested Nielsen's MRC (Media Rating Council) accreditation for their national TV service be revoked due to multiple, major and persistent violations.
As of September 1st, the MRC voted to suspend accreditation of Nielsen's nation television service and Nielsen's local people meter and set meter market service.
To maintain the accuracy of the currency used to transaction billions of dollars of ad revenue, VAB has been actively investigating the Nielsen data released from March 2020 through today.
During our analysis, it became immediately apparent Nielsen’s sample was not consistent with Pre-Covid standards and therefore was negatively effecting TV viewership.
On behalf of our TV network members, we requested MRC (Media Rating Council) revoke Nielsen’s MRC accreditation due to multiple, major and persistent violations. Additionally, we detailed the VAB imperatives to be met by Nielsen prior to restoration of MRC accreditation: an unprecedented level of transparency, rigorous independent verification and comprehensive disclosures to Nielsen’s full subscriber base.
To help the marketplace understand why we took this unprecedented step,and why accreditation was ultimately suspended, you can reference this document. It provides a look at the in-depth analysis we performed, including:
- The current state of Nielsen’s panel vs. Pre-COVID
- Root cause of why issues remain with Nielsen’s sample
- Result of viewership undercounting to the industry
- Recommendation for path forward
As always, our goal is to work with our members, marketers and partners to ensure a transparent, accurate marketplace and expose marketers to a variety of measurement solutions.
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