SOME U.S. TV NETWORKS are deliberately misspelling the names of shows on nights with few viewers in an attempt to boost ratings by deceiving Nielsen’s automated system.
According to a Wall Street Journal report (subscription), NBC retitled its evening news program on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend this year, typically a time of low viewership, to “NBC Nitely News”. The retitling of NBC Nightly News fooled Nielsen’s automated system, which listed “Nitely” as a separate show.
Hiding the May 26 program from Nielsen dramatically improved the show’s average viewership that week, continues the report. Instead of falling further behind first-place rival ABC World News Tonight, NBC News narrowed the gap.
The report added that ABC spelled its news show as “Wrld New Tonite” seven times during the 2016-17 season, and that CBS misspelled The CBS Evening News as the “CBS Evening Nws” 12 times this season.
Nielsen has long had a so-called tilting rule that allows TV networks to fiddle with programs for special circumstances, such as for Christmas and Thanksgiving or if a show was pre-empted in parts of the U.S. for a live sports event.
“If we find a network working in contrast to this agreed-upon policy, we address the issue in a direct fashion as a way to maintain fairness and balance for all of our clients and the industry as a whole,” says Nielsen in the report.
The article says that faced with rising complaints, Nielsen plans to hold a meeting about the practice next week for TV industry representatives.
