The Nielsen saga continues. After recently overhauling their data-collecting methodology to account for non-television streaming numbers, Nielsen has admitted to underestimating TV viewership numbers of their reports, whilst overestimating streaming numbers.
Wrestling Observer Newsletter, using information from The Wall Street Journal, broke the story on March 27. Reportedly, Nielsen’s recent methodology has undersold traditional television viewership numbers by 15%, and has overstated streaming statistics by an undisclosed margin. This vast discrepancy has caused a stir within the broadcasting and promoting industries, who largely depend on Nielsen’s rankings when planning advertisements on broadcast and streaming services.
Sources claim that Nielsen was aware of their methodological inaccuracies as recently as “a couple of weeks ago,” where a mixture of latest data and television-centric programs corresponding to the Super Bowl and the Olympics caused television numbers to overtake their streaming counterparts. Youtube and Netflix reportedly “freaked out” following the report, and Nielsen held back on publishing their findings to supply “additional data” to other troubled clients.
Nielsen was forced to reassess their practices following The Wall Street Journal’s story. While Nielsen is not going to make any changes to their methodology ahead of the February Gauge, their monthly television usage evaluation report, to be able to phase out their old methodology and protect streaming numbers, the rankings giant will begin to integrate DASH data, or data gathered from video-capable streaming devices corresponding to smartphones and tablets. Several figureheads in broadcasting and streaming studies have heavily criticized Nielsen’s recent behavior, and Nielsen themselves admitted fault of their plans to, once more, overhaul their system.
While Nielsen’s recent overhaul saw a short lived bump to several wrestling television programs, longer shows, especially episodes of “Dynamite,” “Collision,” and “SmackDown” with an over-90 minute run time, initially suffered. With April’s high-stakes wrestling schedule quickly approaching, nonetheless, shows from each WWE and AEW have seen upticks in viewership prior to Nielsen’s methodological revisions.