Nielsen says the problem took place between November 3 and November 9 and it’s being blamed on the company moving to a new audio data collection site. Eight percent of the installed PPMs across the 48 PPM markets lost connectivity and became inactive, and this will affect the December PPM monthly survey. Nielsen says it has contacted the homes affected and panelists have been sent new PPMs. Only 49% of the replacement meters are back online so far. Nielsen expects the balance to come online in the next several days. Here is the statement Nielsen sent out to customers…
“We forecast the percentage of installed and fully operational meters eligible for in-tab will be 97% for the month of December and 92% for week one of December across the aggregate of markets. Weighting will adjust for demographic and geographic imbalances. Therefore, buyers and sellers will be able to transact business with confidence. Please note that lower in-tab doesn’t equate to lower ratings. However, temporarily higher weights may contribute to more variation during the period of time it takes for these panelists to be back in-tab and fully accounted for. Nielsen is conducting an analysis to evaluate panel representation and impact to audience estimates. We will share the results of this analysis with you during the week of November 21st prior to the delivery of the Weeklies data for week one of December.”
