WASHINGTON—In response to an ongoing inquiry by the Federal Communications Commission to reexamine TV ratings for children’s programming, 68 Democrats in the House of representatives have sent a strongly worded letter to the agency’s Chair Brendan Carr strongly opposing any attempt by the regulator to add labels identifying content as containing transgender or LGBTQ+ themes.

“We write in response to your questions regarding TV ratings and programs that include gender identity themes or topics and to strongly oppose efforts to censor the inclusion of transgender characters or topics, including by rating programming differently just because it includes transgender people,” the June 22 letter stated.

In April, FCC's Media Bureau issued a new Public Notice seeking comments “on any changes that can or should be made to the TV Parental Guidelines age ratings system to ensure that it is responsive to the issues that parents confront today” in determining what programming is appropriate for their kids.

In that Notice, the FCC also asked if it should consider how the systems handles content related to LGBTQ+ and transgender people. That prompted comments from a number of conservative groups and Republican politicians arguing that the system should add labels identifying content with LGBTQ+ or transgender themes.

U.S. Sen Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Center for American Rights President Daniel Suhr and the Concerned Women for America, are among those calling for updates that would flag content with LGBTQ and transgender themes. Separately, 13 Republican state attorneys general filed comments urging the FCC to create a separate system where viewers could rate programs.

In response, the House Democrats wrote that "we are deeply concerned that the questions you pose, such as whether programs should be rated differently because they discuss gender identity, indicate that you believe there is a role for the FCC to play in determining these ratings—despite Congress’ preference that these ratings be determined by the industry and Congress explicitly stripping FCC of any authority to do so if the industry establishes such ratings (as they have). This request for comment appears to be an unlawful attempt by FCC to pressure broadcast licensees to censor content, including representation of transgender people, in their programming and just the latest political attempt of FCC to censor content the Administration does not agree with.”

“Any attempt by FCC to censor content because it includes transgender characters or topics would raise both legal and constitutional concerns,” the letter concluded. “As we previously highlighted, FCC lacks authority to prescribe guidelines and recommendations for TV ratings. The FCC is also barred from engaging in censorship or promulgating regulations or conditions that interfere with the right of free speech. Any attempt to issue rating warnings for depictions and themes related to transgender people would also raise concerns of content-based and viewpoint discrimination in violation of the First Amendment…[W]e urge the FCC to abandon any efforts to seek to impose higher ratings on programs or content warnings because the program includes transgender characters or topics. As FCC Commissioner Anna Gomez stated, `This is a solution in search of a problem, and another example of this Commission prioritizing culture war politics over the real issues that affect consumers every day.’”

In addition to the letter from the House Democrats, the public interest group Free Press has also urged the Federal Communications Commission to abandon its efforts to "silence the voices of the LGBTQ+ community." 

The FCC issued a notice on April 22 to consider whether industry’s voluntary television-ratings system should apply warning labels to programs that feature transgender and nonbinary characters or discuss gender-identity themes. The group argued that the FCC has no authority to dictate these ratings, and that Carr "is merely trying to help Donald Trump further his anti-trans agenda."

In a filing responding to the agency’s inquiry, Free Press wrote that Carr’s proposal to attach warning labels to LGBTQ+ content makes a mockery of Congress’ mandate. The law stipulates that the FCC must allow the broadcast industry to develop its own ratings system, without federal intervention. “The agency should abandon this contrived and morally repugnant exercise, as it has no authority to suggest any changes to the TV ratings system,” reads Free Press’ filing.

NEW YORK—They may have fallen short in the Western Conference finals, but the Oklahoma City Thunder topped the list of most-watched NBA teams in 2025-26, drawing 1.8 million viewers per game in the regular season, according to Nielsen viewing data.

The No. 2 team was the Los Angeles Lakers—the team that boasted the most-watched player, per Nielsen, in LeBron James—followed by the Eastern Conference champion New York Knicks.

Another participant in this week’s NBA Finals, San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama, trailed James as the league’s second-most-watched player.

Nielsen’s Spring 2026 “Tops of Sports’ report also noted double-digit growth in viewership across pro basketball (up 27%), NHL hockey (25%), auto racing (44%) and golf (12%*), fueled by new streaming and broadcast options, the massive popularity of global stars and changing ways that fans follow their favorite teams.

More specifically, the NBA’s average audience for regular-season games was up 27%, with the early rounds of the playoffs seeing a 10% bump. The league benefited from new media-rights deals that helped it reach younger viewers on streamers Prime Video, Peacock and ESPN Unlimited while still drawing larger audiences on broadcasters ABC and NBC and cable network ESPN.

The NHL is also experiencing a major boost, with average regular-season viewership up 25% to 540,000 viewers per game, and the first round of the playoffs up 77%, to 1.2 million viewers. The growth was bolstered by significant cultural moments involving hockey, such as the gold medal wins by the U.S. men’s and women’s ice hockey teams at the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, Prime Video’s hit series “Off-Campus” and drama series “Heated Rivalry” on HBO Max, which notched nearly 2 billion streaming minutes in the first quarter, Nielsen said.

Followers of the NHL’s official TikTok account were up 83% this season, Nielsen reported. Further demonstrating America’s growing interest, the national TV debut of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) drew about 133,000 viewers to Ion, with 45% of the audience women 18-plus. In addition, demonstrating the buying power of hockey fans, NHL viewers rank No. 3 in median income among all sports watchers.

Last year’s Indianapolis 500 averaged more than 7 million viewers, the most in 17 years. The 2026 IndyCar season is already off to a strong start, with the first five races averaging 1.2 million viewers, 44% higher than the same period in 2025. Viewer interest is also rising, with 19% of respondents reporting being somewhat or very interested in IndyCar this March, up from 15% in March of 2023.

So far this year, the PGA Tour is averaging 1.5 million viewers. Efforts to evolve the franchise’s social media presence may be paying off, as Nielsen Scarborough data shows a steady increase in interest since 2023. *An influx of young Asian talent like Collin Morikawa, Akshay Bhatia, and Si Woo Kim looks to be helping to expand the tour’s audience, with Asian viewership to PGA Tour events up 12% so far this year.

Three major industry trade groups—the Motion Picture Association, the National Association of Broadcasters and NCTA–The Internet & Television Association—have defended the current system of TV ratings for children’s programming in a May 22 joint FCC filing.

In April, the Federal Communications Commission’s Media Bureau issued a Public Notice that it would examine several issues related to TV content ratings and warning labels, including the current system’s handling of content related to LGBTQ+ and transgender people.

The joint response from the main trade groups representing the motion picture, broadcast TV and pay TV industries provides extensive detail on how the system works and how the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board actively seeks feedback from parents to refine its work. But it avoids the controversial question of LGBTQ+ content in addressing the FCC’s ask for public comments on how the ratings system might be improved.

“The TV Parental Guidelines continue to provide an effective tool to help parents and caregivers to make informed viewing choices about age-appropriate programming,” the joint filing said. “The Monitoring Board plays a vital role in fostering consistent TV ratings across broadcast, cable, and streaming platforms. The Board is committed to continuing working diligently to further promote consistency and transparency in ratings and support public understanding.

“At the outset, we agree with the Media Bureau that parents must be empowered to make informed choices when it comes to the type of television programs that are appropriate for their children,“ it continued. “As discussed below, the Monitoring Board and the voluntary TV Parental Guidelines are doing just that. Indeed, the Guidelines are a widely recognized, well-understood and broadly used tool to help parents and caregivers make informed decisions about the television programs their children watch. The television industry carefully developed this decades-old TV ratings system and continues to seek feedback from stakeholders and refine ratings practices.”

The FCC’s Public Notice read: “Recently, parents have raised concerns that controversial gender identity issues are being included or promoted in children’s programs without providing any disclosure or transparency to parents.”

That prompted a number of filings by conservative politicians and groups, including U.S. Sen Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Center for American Rights President Daniel Suhr and the Concerned Women for America, calling for updates that would flag content with LGBTQ and transgender themes. Separately, 13 Republican state attorneys general filed comments urging the FCC to create a separate system where viewers could rate programs.

More than 40 organizations and industry associations, including Free Press, responded with comments opposing the idea. In its filing, public-interest group Free Press said the FCC lacks the authority to change the current system and that efforts to add the labels would silence LGBTQ+ voices.

The full filing from the MPA, NAB and NCTA can be found here.

The NFL’s wild-card playoff round scored hefty viewing numbers for all five games, with Fox leading the weekend with 41 million viewers for the Jan. 11 San Francisco 49ers-Philadelphia Eagles game and Prime Video setting an all-time streaming record for NFL viewing.

Fox also reported 28 million viewers for its coverage of the Jan. 10 Los Angeles Rams-Carolina Panthers game, which peaked at 31 million viewers and was the most-watched Saturday afternoon wild-card playoff game since 2011.

Citing Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel, Amazon’s Prime Vdeo reported that its Jan. 10 coverage of the primetime Green Bay Packers-Chicago Bears game set an all-time NFL streaming record with 31.61 million viewers, shattering the previous record by 4 million, set on Christmas Day with 27.52 million for the Netflix telecast of the Detroit Lions-Minnesota Vikings game.

Packers-Bears saw a 43% year-over-year viewership increase over Prime Video’s 2025 telecast of the Pittsburgh Steelers-Baltimore Ravens wild-card playoff, which was also presented on a Saturday night (Jan. 1, 2025).

The numbers also indicated that the streamer had achieved the concurrent viewers and the highest single-day global viewership ever for Prime Video.

For its part, CBS Sports said the early Sunday AFC Buffalo Bills-Jacksonville Jaguars wild-card game was the most-watched game ever in the early Sunday slot on any network, drawing 32.71 viewers and peaking with 41.15 million at the game's end. That was up 5% from last year.

NBC's Sunday primetime coverage of the New England Patriots beating the Los Angeles Chargers averaged 28.9 million viewers, making it the most-watched Sunday night broadcast of any kind since last February's Super Bowl.

NEW YORK—Nielsen has launched newly redesigned weekly TV ranking reports powered by Big Data Plus Panel metrics and has launched two new ranking reports, including Live Sports Events and Total Scheduled Programming.

The reports cover the first official week of the broadcast season, which began Sept. 22. In the first Live Sports Events report, college football, MLB, NFL, Ryder Cup and WNBA events all made the Top 25.

Nielsen’s Big Data Plus Panel ranking reports now include Broadcast Programs and Network Averages; Cable Programs and Network Averages; Syndication Programs; Sports Events; and Total Scheduled Programming.

The new and updated TV rankers provide streamlined, consistent reporting that better reflects evolving viewing behaviors, Nielsen said. All program-level reports will shift to total-day viewing, and all reports will include these ratings and projections demographics: households, persons 2-plus, persons 18–49 and persons 25–54. Nielsen will also use some of the reports to update the Top 10 lists on its website.

Nielsen is introducing two new ranking reports: Live Sports Events and Total Scheduled Programming. The Live Sports Events report includes the weekly top 25 live sports telecasts across broadcast, cable and live streaming. The Total Scheduled Programming ranking features the top 250 live/scheduled telecasts of the week across broadcast, cable, live streaming and syndication.

Big Data Plus Panel National TV Measurement combines Nielsen’s unique, high-quality representative panel measurement with data from cable, satellite set-top boxes and smart TVs across 45 million households and 75 million devices. Nielsen also incorporates first-party data from participating streaming services.

More information is available on the Nielsen and Big Data Plus Panel websites.

NEW YORK—The Media Rating Council (MRC) has completed its accreditation process covering Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel National TV measurement, making it the first accredited national TV audience measurement provider for a Big Data + Panel, Nielsen said.

The move follows the MRC’s recent accreditation of Nielsen’s integration of first-party live streaming data and reaccrediting Nielsen’s traditional Panel measurement.

Big Data + Panel National TV Measurement combines Nielsen’s representative panel measurement with data from cable, satellite set-top boxes and smart TVs across 45 million households and 75 million devices.

Big Data + Panel is designed to help planning and measurement in the Nielsen ecosystem and partners’ systems. It can also be used in content programming and licensing decisions, along with carriage fees for TV distribution deals, Nielsen said.

Big Data + Panel was widely adopted by many broadcasters and agencies for the 2024 upfront season and Nielsen is endorsing its use as currency heading into the this year’s upfront, Nielsen said.

“The accreditation of Nielsen’s Big Data + Panel is a landmark moment for TV ratings, as it will forever change audience measurement," said Karthik Rao, Nielsen CEO. "No one else pairs a high quality, representative panel with a data set this large, pulling from smart TVs and set top boxes in more than 45 million homes. I believe Big Data + Panel gives the industry the most accurate measurement in the history of TV. We're grateful to our clients for helping us innovate once again."

“MRC has completed and evaluated rigorous audits of Nielsen’s National Service and its new components, including first party streaming (thus far consisting of select NFL games) and the integration of big data,” said George Ivie, CEO and executive director of the MRC. “We have now approved the integration of big data so this combined methodology can be considered MRC accredited; we appreciate Nielsen’s inclusion of this in the MRC accreditation process.” George added, “this effort marks the first time MRC has accredited a hybrid panel/big-data product inclusive of persons level estimates.”

The accreditation was also applauded by others. “The NFL continues to support Nielsen's efforts to modernize measurement so we can all benefit from accurate insights in an increasingly fragmented media marketplace,” said Paul Ballew, chief data and analytic officer of the NFL. “The accreditation of their Big Data solution is a significant step in the journey and we commend Nielsen for their efforts.”

More information is available at www.nielsen.com.

NEW YORK—An estimated 28.9 million viewed all or part of Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris’s acceptance speech during on Thursday, the final night of the Democratic National Convention, according to Nielsen, a half million more than viewed Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s acceptance speech in July.

A total 26.2 million viewers watched the fourth and final night of the 2024 Democratic National Convention, which aired 9-11:30 p.m. ET across 15 television networks reported by Nielsen, with varied coverage televised on each. Harris’s speech aired from approximately 10:31 p.m. to 11:11 p.m. ET.

On Wednesday, the third night of the convention—which featured Vice Presidential candidate Tim Walz’s acceptance speech on Wednesday as well as former President Bill Clinton and Oprah Winfrey—total viewership averaged 20.2 million, according to Nielsen, 3 million more than for the third night of the Republican gathering.

Further data broken down by Samba TV showed that those 28.9 million viewers comprised 13.9 million U.S. households, 31% more than the 10.6 million U.S. households who watched Trump’s RNC speech.

In key swing states, 8% more viewers in Michigan and 5% more in Nevada watched Harris’s speech, while fewer than the average number of households in Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin watched. For black households, 12% more households viewed Harris’s speech than Trump’s, according to Samba TV.

Networks measured included ABC, CBS, NBC, Scripps News, CNN, CNNe, Fox Business, FOX News Channel, MSNBC, Newsmax, NewsNation and PBS.

Ratings for streaming services outpaced U.S. broadcast and cable TV in July according to new numbers from Nielsen, marking the first time that viewing for broadcast and cable fell below 50% since the ratings researcher began tracking streaming services in the fall of 2020. 

Although the numbers were likely skewed by an increase in kidvid ratings as well as what was considered a soft month for professional sports, the fact remains that the decline in broadcast and pay-TV viewership continues apace. On the same day that Nielsen released its July figures, LRG reported that more than 1.7 million subscribers cut the cord during Q2.

Broadcast viewership reached a new low, at just 20%, while cable viewing garnered just 29.6%, which meant that combined non-streaming numbers dipped just below 50%. While overall TV usage was up just slightly from June (0.2%), viewing among people under the age of 18 increased 4%, and viewing among adults 18 and older fell 0.3%. These trends resulted in increased streaming and “other” usage, which is  primarily attributed to video game consoles.

On the streaming side, Suits, streaming on Netflix and Peacock, and Bluey on Disney+ were the most watched programs in July, accounting for 23 billion viewing minutes. Suits, however, set new viewing records for an acquired title, amassing almost 18 billion minutes, Nielsen said. In aggregate, the heavy viewing levels pushed streaming’s share of TV to 38.7%, a new record, with Amazon Prime Video, Netflix and YouTube all hitting all-time highs.

Comparatively, sports on broadcast generated almost 25 billion viewing minutes in July, albeit across a range of channels. Most would consider July a slow month for sports, given that broadcast sports viewing typically more than triples when September starts. While the FIFA Women’s World Cup provided a boost at the end of the month, drama remained the most watched category, capturing 25.7% of viewing. Overall, total broadcast viewing was down 3.6% to finish the month at 20% of TV, representing a new low. On a year-over-year basis, broadcast usage was down 5.4%.

Cable viewing slipped as well, losing a full share point to capture 29.6% of TV in July. Feature film was the only genre to see a rise in viewership (0.5%), despite the fact that usage fell 1.5%. Viewing across virtually all others dropping from June. ESPN’s Home Run Derby and the College World Series took the top 2 slots, followed by When Calls The Heart on The Hallmark Channel. On a year-over-year basis, cable usage was down 12.5%.

With the fall TV season in disarray due to the ongoing writers/actors strike against Hollywood studios, the next few months will provide a unique outlook on the future of non-streaming services, Nielsen said. 

“The arrival of fall will likely result in a seasonal shift in TV viewing, especially with the arrival of a new NFL season,” the ratings firm said. “In November 2022, for example, sports accounted for 150 billion viewing minutes on broadcast. The potential for less new original primetime content this fall presents a unique situation for broadcast and cable, but the recent success of acquired programming on streaming channels highlights the outsized strength of quality content, regardless of when it was created.”

Stefan Lederer, Founder and CEO of Bitmovin, a Silicon  Valley-based provider of streaming video technology, says that broadcasters and cable operators should take a page from streaming’s playbook if they want to survive in an era where on-demand programs and live sports and news dominate viewer’s choices. 

“Despite streaming experiencing some turbulence, this research demonstrates that consumers align with studios in the sense both parties see streaming as the future,” Lederer said. “Our own research provides further insight into why this is the case—and a key answer is live streaming. With the addition of live events to streaming services, and the expansion to include reality TV live streams, live streaming became the second most viewed format at an average of 3.54 hours per week. This was only beaten by traditional streaming at 3.76 hours, whilst Linear TV lagged behind just reaching 3 hours. 

For some time now linear TV has been hemorrhaging viewers, but in order to achieve lofty expectations of moving to an almost entirely streaming service world these businesses must embark on a research mission with streaming infrastructure providers,” Lederer continued. “This deep-dive must uncover how they can efficiently deliver live streams and video-on-demand to hundreds of millions more viewers. Moreover, they must work alongside streaming infrastructure providers to ensure they can deliver their streaming platforms in a sustainable manner, as with each new subscription and each new viewer, comes a carbon price.”

The Gauge provides a monthly macroanalysis of audience viewing behaviors across key television delivery platforms, including broadcast, streaming, cable and other sources. It also includes a breakdown of the major, individual streaming distributors. The chart itself represents monthly total television usage, broken out into share of viewing by category and by individual streaming distributors.

NEW YORK—Some of the world’s largest media companies have formed a consortium to design a new method of measuring media consumption in an attempt to streamline the process of measuring premium video content as well as provide an alternative to Nielsen.

Fox, NBCUniversal, Paramount, TelevisaUnivision, and Warner Bros. Discovery and the VAB are working with advanced advertising company OpenAP to form a new Joint Industry Committee on Premium Video Currency (JIC) “to enable multiple currencies with the primary focus of creating a measurement certification process to establish the suitability of emerging cross-platform measurement solutions in advance of the 2024 upfront.”

The JIC said the process to develop measurement certification standards is currently underway and will be formalized and officially announced March 1st. It will reveal its preliminary findings April 25. It said it is also reaching out to other qualified premium video programmers to join the committee and elicit active participation from advertising agencies and qualified trade bodies to advance the multi-currency proposal.

AMong the JIC’s tasks are:

• Establish and maintain a measurement certification process in partnership with the VAB that will be housed inside of the JIC for third-party measurement vendors conducting cross-platform premium video currency services that will be operational by the start of the 2024 season, starting in the Fall of 2023.
• Create a programmer data set to enable third-party measurement vendors by harmonizing streaming viewership data brought together by OpenAP infrastructure.
• Engage a third-party audit firm to verify the accuracy of the streaming viewership dataset in order to maintain measurement independence and neutrality.
• Collaborate with the VAB and ANA to accelerate progress made to measurement calibration by both parties, as well as with other key Industry Trade Bodies including the 4A's, IAB, ARF and more.

"The sustainability of the premium video advertising model depends on an ecosystem for measurement that is transparent, independent, inclusive, and accurately reflects the way all people consume premium video content today – across multiple screens, connections, and devices. By coming together to establish this JIC, we can collaborate and accelerate the efforts to implement a new multi-currency future that fosters more competition, inclusivity and innovation and will ultimately better serve advertisers, agencies and consumers," said Jeff Shell, CEO of NBCUniversal; Bob Bakish, CEO of Paramount; Wade Davis, CEO of TelevisaUnivision; and David Zaslav, President and CEO, Warner Bros. Discovery in a joint statement.

Nielsen, in a statement to NextTV, said: "We appreciate working with all the industry bodies vested in the best way to measure the changing audience and providing fidelity and trust between advertisers, agencies, publishers and platforms. We continue to believe it is critical to have measurement that is transparent, consistent, auditable and independent."

Ashwin Navin, Co-Founder and CEO of TV measurement company Samba TV also commented on the news: “It has long been clear that the U.S. model of a single measurement monopoly would not be able to keep pace with the rapid state of change in viewing behavior we are experiencing today and that it would ultimately fail to provide the kind of diversity and accuracy in measurement that media buyers are demanding.

"This news is a critical step towards a multi-currency world where the industry is empowered to adopt the data and technology it needs to develop advanced and transparent methodologies for measurement versus the legacy black box tools we have been confined to for decades. This is a great moment for publishers who will have full transparency into the value of their programming, for advertisers who will be empowered to go beyond legacy models from two generations ago that no longer make sense in today’s diverse audience and programming world, and for consumers who will now have far more advanced tools measuring their attention providing better insights to guide content investments.  

"One of the biggest challenges of the legacy approach to measurement today is the one-size-fits-all approach, which may have made sense a half century ago but frankly makes no sense in today's incredibly diverse and fragmented media landscape. A program that attracts a highly-diverse or hard to reach audience for example, but ultimately captures a smaller overall share of attention of a mainstream program, could be cancelled under the existing legacy model. By embracing new and innovative methods that go well beyond the simple age and gender metrics that have guided the industry for decades, and empower advertisers and programmers to truly understand who their audiences are and their real value, we will enable creators to continue to think outside the box in the development of incredibly diverse and entertaining content.” 

A bi-annual national survey released by the TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board has found that parental satisfaction with the accuracy of TV ratings guidelines for parents remains high.

The online survey, conducted by Hart Research Associates in August and September 2022, gathered the responses of 1,052 American parents of children between the ages of two and 17. The survey is part of the board’s ongoing tracking system of parental awareness and attitudes toward the TV rating system. 

The survey found that parents find the TV ratings system a valuable resource when trying to determine the age-appropriateness of television programs, specifically finding that 90% of American parents finding that the system helped them determine whether to allow their children to watch a particular show.

Among the findings, the survey revealed that 92% of parents say they understand the parental ratings for television and most report that they use those ratings either “sometimes” or “often” when deciding if their child can watch a particular show.

When it comes to the ratings themselves, most parents who were surveyed said it is important to understand why content is rated within the existing ratings descriptors, noting that it’s particularly important to know about sexual situations in programing (referred to as the “S” rating descriptor) as well as violence (the “V” descriptor). In addition, most of the parents surveyed who have used v-chip parental controls say they are useful. Other important ranking monikers including those regarding suggestive dialogue, coarse or crude language and fantasy violence.

When asked if they can recall seeing a show they felt was rated inaccurately, 63% of respondents said they could not recall one they thought had an inaccurate rating. 

The survey also found that digital streaming services remain the most common way that children watch TV programming, with 86% of parents reporting at the time that their children had used streaming services to watch TV shows in the past two weeks. When it comes to live programming, the survey found that 58% of parents say their children watched live shows through a broadcast, cable or satellite TV connection while 46% said their children had streamed through a live streaming service. 

“The television landscape has changed dramatically over the past few years as more and more programming options have been made available to American families,” said Charles Rivkin,  chairman of the monitoring board and chairman and CEO of the Motion Picture Association. “This survey demonstrates the value and trust that parents place in the TV Parental Guidelines to help them navigate the age-appropriateness of TV programs.”

The TV Parental Guidelines Monitoring Board includes experts from the television industry as well as public interest advocates who are responsible for ensuring uniformity and consistency in applying parental guidelines. The board also reviews complaints about specific program ratings to help ensure accuracy.

NEW YORK—Nielsen’s TV viewership numbers were understated for February 2021, this according to an analysis of its procedures by the Media Rating Council’s Television Committee. This is an affirmation of the belief by many TV networks that Nielsen’s ratings measurements have been negatively impacted during the Covid-19 pandemic.

According to MRC, Nielsen’s measurement of Total Usage of Television (TUT) by Persons 18-49 for February 2021 was understated by 2-6%. Also, estimates for Persons Using Television (PUT) among Persons 18-49 were understated 1-5%.

Because of the pandemic, Nielsen has curtailed its in-person visits and decreased the number of homes that participate in its television measurement panels by a reported 20%. This was brought up by the Video Advertising Bureau, which represents TV networks, in April, where they asked for an independent third-party to audit Nielsen’s numbers. Nielsen declined at the time, saying that MRC’s analyses of its numbers are sufficient.

These most recent numbers, however, do support the claim from VAB that Nielsen’s numbers may have been negatively impacted over the last year.

In its findings, MRC said that Nielsen identified 9,400 of its 40,000 TV panel homes that were impacted during the pandemic that in pre-pandemic times would have caused them to be withheld from contributing to Nielsen’s estimates until the issues had been addressed. Of those 9,400, 2,400 had what were considered “high priority” alerts, which are deemed highly likely to impact Nielsen’s ability to collect complete and accurate viewing data. Another 3,000 were classified as medium priority, and the remaining 4,000 were deemed low priority.

Removing these homes in a review of the February 2021 resulted in MRC’s finding of underreporting for TUT and PUT. However, MRC notes that 93% of C3 ratings for persons 18-49 of major networks saw no more than 0.02 change in ratings points.

As a result of the MRC findings, VAB CEO Sean Cunningham is calling for greater scrutiny of Nielsen’s practices, believing that this could just be “the tip of the iceberg.”

For its part, Nielsen said that it has already “aggressively returned to pre-Covid maintenance procedures and will continue to rigorously work with the MRC and its clients to understand the impacts of both the pandemic and changing consumer viewing behaviors on data and analysis.”

The full MRC report is available online. 

NEW YORK—Nielsen claims that it does not need to take another look at its TV ratings measurements from the past year, rebuking the call by the Video Advertising Bureau on behalf of the major TV networks for an independent, third-party audit.

Last week, VAB wrote a letter to Nielsen calling for an audit on TV ratings during the pandemic, saying there was “dissatisfaction and concerns” with Nielsen’s measurement methods as the system “degraded” over the course of the pandemic.

In a statement, which was provided to TV Tech, Nielsen said that it is regularly examined by the Media Rating Council, and therefore does not need to be subject to an additional audit.

“Third party auditing has always been a vital part of serving as the industry currency and our products undergo a comprehensive audit process with the Media Rating Council on an annual basis,” the statement reads. “Nielsen’s existing MRC audit process exists to ensure confidence and trust in the audience estimates we produce. We have been clear and transparent with the MRC and our clients on every change in protocol we needed to make during COVID to keep our people and panelists safe.”

According to VAB, the changes referred to in the Nielsen statement have led to a 20% drop in households supplying “usable” information. It also claims that the number of homes registering no TV viewing has risen 120%. Nielsen has maintained, however, that its work and numbers, audited by MRC, are accurate.

“Our work with the MRC, the independent body created for this very reason, is ongoing and should serve the purpose of an independent audit,” Nielsen's statement added. “Since VAB members are also MRC members, they should feel free to engage directly with the MRC. A single third party audit is the best approach for the industry and we will work closely with the MRC on all audit requests.”

VAB’s CEO Sean Cunningham responded to Nielsen’s denial for an audit by calling it “a glaring negative outlier from the market’s currency provider and partner.”

NEW YORK—Nearly 57 million people watched as ballots closed and the votes for who would be the next president of the United States—Joe Biden or Donald Trump—were counted.

Nielsen has reported that primetime coverage (8 p.m.-11 p.m. ET) of 2020 election results on Nov. 3 drew an estimated 56.9 million people across 21 networks. Those numbers are down from the 71.4 million who watched the battle between Hillary Clinton and Trump in 2016.

Among all households, primetime election coverage drew an average rating of 31.2, which equates to about 37.8 million viewers. In terms of age, the largest group of viewers were 55 and older, with more than 27.7 million viewers (rating of 29.4); 35-54 year olds followed with an average of nearly 17.5 million viewers (rating of 22), then 18-34 year olds came in at an average of almost 7.7 million viewers (rating of 10.9).

PLUS: Fox News Nets Largest Audience for Election Night Coverage

From 2016, the number is down by about a million among those 55 and older (28.9 million in 2016), but there were bigger drops in the 35-54 age group (22.5 million total viewers in 2016) and 18-34 (13.3 million in 2016).

The 2020 Nielsen numbers do include out-of-home viewing and connected TV viewing. Contribution from CTVs, per Nielsen, can be as much as 11% for televised political events.

See Nielsen’s report online. 

NEW YORK—Nielsen announced today that it is moving its core National Television Audience Measurement processing from traditional on-premise server processing to Amazon Web Services.

Nielsen says the move will help the company improve the scalability, redundancy and reliability it needs to track more than $70 billion in advertising revenue in the U.S. annually.

As the company spends more of its assets on tracking media usage across an increasing range of video devices and OTT services, its customers are looking for more data analysis using machine learning and artificial intelligence. Moving its services to AWS will provide more robust viewer measurement and expand its customer base, the company said.

“Cloud processing allows for greater flexibility and velocity, as we build new and enhance existing products,” said Scott N. Brown, head of Product. TV and Audio at Nielsen.

“Nielsen’s move to AWS will help them become a more agile organization in the cloud and accelerate their work in helping companies around the world understand viewership data,” said Stephan Orban, general manager at AWS.

Over the past year, Nielsen’s chief competitor, ComScore, has developed cloud partnerships with Oracle and Adobe. 

LOS ANGELES—The United States National Women’s Team raised more than the World Cup trophy on Sunday’s final match, they also raised the bar on TV and streaming views for soccer matches.

The final match of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup that saw the U.S. prevail 2-0 over the Netherlands delivered nearly 14 million viewers on the traditional Fox broadcast, and peaked at 19.595 million across all Fox and streaming services. In total viewership, the match out-performed the 2018 men’s World Cup final between France and Croatia by 22%.

It was also a record day for streaming numbers of a women’s soccer match. The average minute audience was 289,000 viewers, making it the most streamed FIFA Women’s World Cup final in history, up 402% from the U.S. victory over Japan in 2015.

However, streaming was the only advantage that this year’s final had over the 2015 final, which averaged 25.4 million viewers, still the largest audience for a soccer match in U.S. history, men or women. The 2015 match did take place in Canada, allowing for it to peak in primetime, while the 2019 match took place in France, airing on Fox between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET. When compared to a previous Europe-based final in 2011 though, the 2019 match was 4% higher.

For the entire tournament, 2019 posted a 2% increase in ratings from 2015 and 11% up from 2011. U.S. matches against France in the quarterfinals and Chile in the group stage were the most watched matches in those rounds ever for the Women’s World Cup. Fox’s digital content for the entire tournament saw nearly one billion minutes consumed.

Fox’s soccer coverage continued on Sunday, as the U.S. Men’s National Team’s game against Mexico in the Concacaf Gold Cup final was the most watched non-World Cup soccer telecast on FS1 ever with more than 3 million viewers on traditional and streaming platforms.

WASHINGTON—The FCC is giving an incomplete on its Congressionally-mandated review of the current television content rating system. While the commission’s Media Bureau lays out instances that indicate that the current ratings system could be applied better to some video content, a definitive or specific conclusion as to “the extent to which the rating system matches the video content is being shown” could not be reached in the 90 days allotted for review.

The Media Bureau was tasked by Congress to look into the voluntary ratings system designed by the NAB, the National Cable Television Association and the Motion Picture Association of America and approved by the FCC in 1998 as a response to the Telecommunications Act of 1996. The Media Bureau issued a Public Notice in February that sought comments on the accuracy of television content ratings and the ability of the TV Oversight Monitoring Board (TVOMB) to oversee the ratings and address public concerns.

Nearly 1,800 comments were filed for the Public Notice. A number of commenters made the argument that “the TV Parental Guidelines are not applied accurately to television programming,” citing violence, sexual situations and other “mature” content are being rated appropriately for children. However, Industry Representatives say that surveys they conducted as recently as 2018 find that 94% of parents were satisfied with the accuracy of the TV Parental Guidelines.

Similarly, the view on the operations of the TVOMB was dependent on what side of the industry commenters came down on. Those representing parents were worried about the TVOMB’s process for collecting and responding to complaints, as well as the group’s transparency. Industry reps stressed the value that the TVOMB provides in helping parents understand the ratings system.

The Media Bureau ultimately determined that the TVOMB had “been insufficiently accessible and transparent to the public,” noting that when the review began the TVOMB did not have a phone number for the public to contact, though that problem was ultimately resolved. Even so, it was recommended that steps should be taken to increase awareness, with suggestions of improving the TVOMB’s promotion of its role overseeing the ratings system; providing more information on the complaints that TVOMB receives and their resolutions; and holding at least one public meeting a year.

However, unable to, as it states, effectively determine the accuracy of the current TV ratings, the Media Bureau does believe “that sufficient concerns have been expressed in the record to merit additional Board action to analyze the accuracy of ratings.” Recommendations for possible Board actions included random audits or spot checks analyzing the accuracy and consistency of the ratings being applied.

The Parents Television Council released a statement from its President, Tim Winter, in response to the report, saying that the FCC affirmed “numerous, intrinsic failings of the TV content ratings system that we've been proclaiming for years.”

Winter continued: “The next step in the process for positive change needs to be public hearings, or perhaps a symposium, conducted by Congress or the FCC, that can deliver to parents a reliable and robust content ratings system which reflects the realities of today's entertainment media landscape.”

To read the FCC’s full report, click here.

This story was updated to include comments from the Parents Television Council.

TV measurement is going through big changes, according to a new whitepaper from TiVo.

After years of audience estimates being based on small samples or panels of viewer, big data has come to TV in the form of set-top-box data and automated content recognition.

Those new forms of data “are set to radically change the way marketers, networks and broadcasters measure TV viewership, plan media buys and execute ad campaigns,” TiVo says.

While not mentioning Nielsen by name, the report says that using old-school TV measurement—in a digital age is creating skepticism about measurement from networks and marketers.

“The root of this growing skepticism is the continued reliance on small panels – numbering in the tens of thousands of households – to represent the TV viewing behavior of 120+ million U.S. households. As one interview subject with a background in statistics put it, ‘modeling the entire population from such a small sample necessitates lots of assumptions and risks many inaccuracies,’” the report says.

Nielsen stands by its approach.

“To accurately measure anything, you need to be able to directly observe it and sample it in a representative way. That is why our industry standard panel is and will continue to be the foundation of television measurement,” said Kelly Abcarian, senior vice president, product leadership at Nielsen.

“Panels are purposely built for persons level media measurement, while big data is a byproduct of a machine. So not only is this device level data instead of persons level data, but it is also merely an unrepresentative bigger sample. A sample that is incomplete, biased and discriminates against those excluded from its measurement is a problem regardless of its size. If big data comes more from high rises, city dwellers or apartments instead of private residences, meaning you don’t get data from all parts of the market and you don’t have a truth set that can be used for adjustments, you can’t pretend it doesn't matter,” Abcarian said. “As we have seen in digital, when data is not accurate or transparent, this results in under delivery of the ROI goals and advertisers will either lose confidence in television as a medium, or the agency, or both.”

Measurement is a more complicated proposition now than when there were three networks and families watched on TV set in the living room. Now there are new platforms and devices and an explosion of content. Marketers also have experience with digital media, which promises precise measurement, targeted audiences and feedback on how users responded to content and advertising.

TiVo says the new forms of viewing data are being collected at scale, are highly granular, are being built for new viewing methods and can be integrated into marketing models.

Set-top-box data is the largest source of TV viewing data at this point. One downside, however is that because of the fragmented nature of the cable industry combining data from different operators can be tricky.

“The biggest problem – and one that limits the number of companies willing to even tackle STB data aggregation – is dealing with the variety of file formats, data structures and levels of granularity,” the TiVo report said. “Concerns about how well STB data reflects the overall population persist, since 17%of TV households rely purely on over-the-air signals and an increasing number of younger households are cutting the cord.”

Data based on automated content recognition is available from fewer viewers at this point.

“Manufacturers are only beginning to share ACR data with other companies or withholding it completely, limiting the reach of ACR data available today,” the report says. “Vizio is a notable exception, but census-level ACR data availability would require active participation from major manufacturers – and none appear willing to cooperate with others.”

On the plus side, the TiVo report says ACR data collection benefits from its flexibility, allowing the capture of viewing data across linear, DVR and smart TV app viewing, although there may be data gaps in VOD and some long-tail content due to watermarking requirements.

It is tough to combine set-top-box viewing data with commercial logs, the report says.

“ACR technology enables the tracking of ad units at the individual device level without having to rely upon commercial as-run logs. This allows for faster reporting on ad delivery and more accurate data for addressable TV advertising. Nonetheless, taking advantage of this technology requires advertisers to incorporate ACR-ready watermarks during the production and distribution process,” the report said.

The presence of clear, trackable consumer conversion activity is essential, as with all attribution, the report added.

While the new methods of audience data collection have advantages, adopting them faces hurdles, the report says. Those included:

• Industry inertia and the currency conundrum: “Despite the limitations of traditional, panel-based TV measurement, it is the currency by which billions of dollars of TV advertising is bought and sold. And, it is no small task to shift from today’s gross rating point (GRP)-based TV buying model to the impression-based buying model required to maximize the benefits of next-gen TV data,” the report says.

• Data quality transparency:For next-gen TV data to become the new standard, data vendors will need to offer greater transparency into their collection approach, modeling methods and data sources.

• Consumer privacy and regulation: Digital data collection and targeting has long been subject to a set of self-regulatory guidelines, but the nascent nature of TV data collection means these standards are still evolving.

Looking ahead, greater data scale, quality standards, privacy protections and ease of access through aggregation will enable marketers and networks to more seamlessly leverage the strengths of both set-top-box and ACR data,” the report said.

“People-based marketing will become a reality as marketers and networks stop evaluating TV ad exposure in aggregate demographic groups and instead map individual TV viewing behavior to cross-device marketing exposure and attributed outcomes. Now that marketers have these capabilities across other screens, they will also demand them from TV,” the report said.