Nearly a month after February sweeps results were announced, Nielsen has admitted to errors and will reissue corrected numbers, New England One has learned.
Nearly a month after February sweeps results were announced, Nielsen has admitted to errors and will reissue corrected numbers, New England One has learned.
Nielsen rarely reissues rating results, but was forced to take a serious look at the irregularities of the February book after WBZ, WCVB, WHDH, and WBTS (NBC Boston) all filed formal complaints, a source tells New England One.
We're told that the investigation took longer than expected, and was further impacted by Nielsen's power outage and inability to produce overnights from March 11 through March 15.
As we first reported, the ratings issue arose toward the end of the February book when WFXT FOX 25 saw a sudden surge in their ratings. The ratings increase did not go unnoticed at the station, and station management started celebrating the ratings wins - FOX 25 general manager Tom Raponi grew a "ratings beard" and the station threw the staff a pizza party.
Before the sudden rise in the ratings, FOX 25 had been losing to WHDH at 10pm for the first time - and was also losing to WHDH in the mornings. WBZ was also on track to win at 11pm. The rise in the ratings skewed the monthly average in such a way that FOX 25 was able to pull out the wins in the morning and at 10pm against WHDH, and at 11pm against WBZ.
As we were first to tell you earlier this month, Nielsen's investigation found that the ratings anomaly was tied to one household in the sample.
Sources tell us that this particular household did not watch FOX 25 regularly, then all of a sudden started watching only FOX 25. The ratings bump was also due to visitors of this particular household being punched into the people meter to count them as additional viewers.
The Nielsen investigation has concluded that no one in this household works at or is affiliated with FOX 25, but Nielsen cannot say who the visitors are. While there could have been only one visitor, it is possible that four or five (or any number really) could have been punched into the system to record their views.
The investigation found that the irregularities were caused by extra people being signed in to the people meter. Again, according to Nielsen, this household does not have ties with FOX 25.
Sources tell us that the greatest jumps were during the 10pm and 11pm newscasts, but 7am and 6pm also saw some irregularities.
In the adults 25-54 demographic for example, FOX 25 registered big bumps between February 21 and March 2.
For reference, the averages in the demo at 10pm and 11pm were:
February 2 - February 20: 10pm: 1.2, 11pm: 0.8
February 21 - March 2: 10pm: 2.2, 11pm: 1.9
March 3 - March 19: 10pm: 1.2, 11pm: 0.7
How can one household affect ratings so much? For perspective, we're told that there are 800 people meters in the Boston market. The market has 2,424,240 television households, so each meter represents roughly 3,030 households. That number also increases depending on how many people are punched into the people meter, so one household can have a dramatic effect on the ratings system.
Our sources tell us that this household should have never been in Nielsen's sample. Nielsen did not pull this household until after the March book started, but it was removed on March 3.
The revised ratings have not been released yet, but sources tell us that because this one household only seemed to help FOX 25's ratings, only FOX 25 is expected to see their numbers decline.
We're told that Tom Raponi met with representatives from Nielsen yesterday, and sent an email to staff with some revised numbers (according to the email, they lost at 11pm, but still won at 10pm in the A25-54 demo).
You can take a look at what the numbers were here, and we will post the revised ratings when they are released. You can view the notices sent out by Nielsen below.
