A top ten market is among four that have lost the Media Rating Council’s seal of approval for Nielsen’s PPM ratings. The revoked accreditation adds another strain to a currency already under review after a pause on the accreditation of Nielsen’s diary service.
The MRC revoked accreditation for the Nielsen Audio PPM service in Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, and Jacksonville, in a September Radio Committee action. That information was just now released publicly in the MRC’s Q3 accreditation report.
In the same action, the MRC denied accreditation for 18 unaccredited Nielsen Audio PPM markets, which include Austin, Boston, Dallas, Hartford, Houston, Las Vegas, Memphis, Nashville, New York, Norfolk, Orlando, Providence, Raleigh, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, and West Palm Beach.
The report does not explain either decision.
MRC accreditation is an independent audit confirming that a ratings service’s methodology, sampling, and data processing meet the council’s standards. It is voluntary, and losing it does not stop Nielsen from publishing or selling the data. Instead, the “audited” label comes off, which can matter to agencies and advertisers that prefer or require accredited currency.
In July, Nielsen’s Audio Diary service entered a six-month accreditation hiatus that began June 23 and runs through December 23, as Nielsen refines the rollout of its mSurvey mobile diary tool.
