The Nielsen Rating System has admitted to an error in their viewing survey. As you may already know, the Nielsen Corporation, which has been around since 1923, is what broadcasters use to measure the size of the audience viewing a television program at a specific day and time. The Nielsen rating system is primarily used by standard network broadcasters, although there are other companies that have began to offer rating services, as well. Despite that, Nielsen remains the premiere rating service for the industry.
They got their start in 1923 testing the quality of conveyor belts and turbine generators; since then, the Nielsen Corporation has composed thousands of reports that have greatly assisted many companies looking for technical analysis through the use of different surveys and indexes. They expanded on the concept in 1927 with their first survey of the industrial market – a consumer market survey completed in 1929 and in 1933, with capital nearing $100,000, they created their first index for drug and retail sales figures. This, later, lead to the invention of the market share concept and, in 1935, shortly thereafter secured the rights to the audiometer, a device that records when a radio is turned on or off and what station it is tuned to.
In 1941, with a firm footing in the industry, Nielsen doubled the size of its main office and, by 1950, Nielson released their first TV ratings index using a
device adapted from the audimeter and later, in 1971, secured their place in the industry by creating a device that transmits viewing information via phone line, ensuring that they can provide information faster than their competition. However, in 1990, with the advent of the internet possibly rendering their services useless, they are managing to stay viable to network broadcasters for reasons I have yet to discover.
Although Nielsen has admitted to this error, they have yet to offer a solution – leading me to ask one question: Why bother with statistics that are, at best, unreliable and, at worst, damaging to earnings potential? Perhaps they are gearing-up for another great concept… from a company that started-out surveying industrial equipment that became the name in television marketing, the Nielson Corporation is bound to surprise us, somehow. Read more about the Nielson Rating System on their website: www.nielsen.com/us/en.html
- Nielson Admits to an Error - October 12, 2014
