Nielsen Requests MRC Accreditation Pause

Nielsen has asked the Media Rating Council (MRC) to pause accreditation of its national TV rating service, after claims it had underreported data during the pandemic. If approved, Nielsen will operate without the MRC seal of approval in a 'hiatus' period which could last for up to six months.

Last month, the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB) called for the MRC to suspend Nielsen's accreditation because of claims the ratings giant had violated at least five of the MRC's minimum standards. VAB accused it of 'chronic underreporting', which it said had led to an exaggerated and inaccurate depiction of 2020 Covid TV usage declines and resulted in inaccurate reporting for nearly 10,000 homes.

Nielsen had already acknowledged, in May, that some of its audience data had been inaccurate due to a reduction in the size of in-home panel sizes and operational issues created by the pandemic. In yesterday's statement, the firm said: 'While we remain confident in the integrity of our data and measurement, and fully support the audit process, we believe that moving to a hiatus allows us to concentrate our audit-related efforts on continuing to address panel concerns alongside the transformation of our National TV product and development of Nielsen ONE'.

MRC Executive Director George Ivie said today that MRC would need to consult its full board to review Nielsen's request, adding: 'In addition to those reasons for seeking a hiatus that Nielsen cited in its public statement on this matter, we are compelled to note that the National Television Service has also had some deep-rooted, ongoing performance issues that have threatened its accreditation - many of which pre-dated the well-documented Covid pandemic related impacts to its panels'.

Web sites: www.nielsen.com , www.mediaratingcouncil.com and www.thevab.com .