MRC Continues Nielsen Suspension but May Restart Soon

In the US, the audit committee of the Media Rating Council (MRC) has voted to continue its suspension of Nielsen's National TV Ratings service, but says that reinstatement could occur 'relatively soon' following 'significant progress' by the company on most issues.

The MRC suspended the accreditation in September 2021, simultaneously changing its mind about allowing the company a hiatus it had requested for auditing of Local Market measurement during development of the Nielsen One cross-media measurement solution. The moves followed calls for a suspension of the accreditation by the Video Advertising Bureau (VAB), which accused the agency of 'chronic underreporting' for nearly 10,000 homes during the pandemic. After this, media companies and advertisers criticized Nielsen, with NBCUniversal then issuing a request for proposals to third-party firms, with the aim of creating a new system of measurement.

Commenting on the committee's decision to continue suspending Nielsen's service, MRC SVP, Associated Director David Gunzerath (pictured) said: 'While it is true the existing suspension of MRC accreditation remains in place at the current time, it is also true that we believe Nielsen has made significant progress on most of the issues that led to that suspension. MRC continues to actively work with Nielsen on a path to address the remaining issues so that a consideration of reinstatement of accreditation to the National TV service may occur relatively soon'.

Web sites: www.nielsen.com and www.mediaratingcouncil.org .