Nielsen’s Gauge Delay is ‘Indefensible,’ Says TV Trade Group

The whole TV business is grappling with Gauge Rage.

Nielsen’s recent decision to delay its popular “Gauge” snapshot of viewing across linear and digital platforms has incensed a trade group that represents the nation’s TV networks to advertisers.

Nielsen last week said it would delay the release of the February results of its popular tabulation after some clients became alarmed by a downturn 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 its anticipated spike in TV audience totals), and also revert Gauge’s math to a method now proven to undercount all TV forms throughout the upfront season, are both indefensible manipulations that run completely counter to the role of a fair and neutral measurement and currency data provider,” said Sean Cunningham, CEO of the Video Advertising Bureau, a veteran trade group that acts as a proxy for the TV networks in dealings with Madison Avenue, in a prepared statement.

At issue was the implementation earlier this year of new data that shows how U.S. households connect to and consume TV, use video-capable digital devices, and interact with and share streaming media and ecommerce accounts. The research, known as DASH, is a syndicated study fielded in partnership with NORC at the University of Chicago, a polling firm. Nielsen had previously informed clients that its use of the data could result in a one-time expansion of the number of households, or “universe,” watching cable and broadcast TV, and a potential diminution of the overall audience watching streaming.

But the uptick in linear viewing across cable and broadcast– spurred by February telecasts of the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympics on NBC and Peacock — has alarmed many streamers, all of whom have seen their fortunes soar as they reel in scads of new broadband viewers. The behind-the-scenes push and pull over the Gauge shows Nielsen having to cater to a new generation of customers — companies like Amazon, Roku and Netflix — that can be just as challenging as traditional clients like CBS, Fox and NBC.

Nielsen suggested the VAB’s furor might be misplaced. “The VAB membership includes Nielsen’s competitors and a subset of the ad-supported video industry. So it’s no surprise they are being misleading,” Nielsen said in a statement. “Let’s be clear: the change the VAB is fighting for is already a part of Nielsen currency. We’ve been using it in our TV ratings, which networks and advertisers buy and sell against, since February. The only methodology pause is happening to The Gauge, which is a free, monthly report. The ad industry at large does not use The Gauge to sell ads or guarantee ad buys. That is what our currency ratings are for.”

In his statement Cunningham accused Nielsen of “obvious manipulation and sector bias,” because the decision holds back a look at robust performance by traditional TV in an era when streamers are steadily gaining audience.

“Purposely delaying and suppressing TV’s February’s audience totals –which include both a Super Bowl and a primal American-lead Olympics—is more than just public kowtowing to Google, or an escalation of Nielsen’s thumb on the Gauge scale while cheerleading YouTube boom / TV gloom; this level of manipulation looks to me like obvious interference in markets,” Cunningham said.

In a letter to clients issued last week, Nielsen Chief Client Officer Peter Naylor said Nielsen would hold back on the Gauge in order to integrate ” methodology updates” being made to its measuring technology.

The measurement donnybrook is the latest fissure between Nielsen and its media client base. TV networks believe Nielsen’s recent move to update its long-running panels with data from interactive TV have created significant issues around tabulating cable networks, particularly when it comes to calculating critical viewership “demos” of people between 18 and 49 or 25 and 54. Advertisers watch these two groups closely — the former in entertainment programming and the latter in news programming.