Nielsen Takes It Back
October 10, 2007
Everyone got their panties in a bunch over the reported ratings for the season debut of “Heroes.” Nielsen recently implemented a change that allowed a network to combine two airings of the same show into one reported rating, as long as all the commercials played were the same. Heroes premiered on Sept. 24 with a single sponsor – Nissan Motor Co. The rebroadcast was on Sept. 29.
All well and good until Nielsen clients told the firm that “it was essential for the ratings to the individual telecasts to remain available so that viewing to each telecast can be analyzed separately and to ensure there is no ratings gap in any time period.”
Makes sense. Effective immediately, Nielsen said that if a “broadcast network re-airs the same episode then ratings for both the original and the repeat will be reported.”
