MRC Accredits Nielsen’s National, Enhanced Local Ratings

Nielsen announced today that its Local People Meter (LPM) market service and Set Meter measurement services in 19 of 31 U.S. Set Meter markets have been granted continued accreditation by the Media Rating Council (MRC). The markets are Austin, Cincinnati, Columbus, Greensboro, Hartford, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Memphis, Milwaukee, Nashville, Norfolk, Providence, Raleigh-Durham, Salt Lake City, San Antonio, San Diego and West Palm Beach.

According to Nielsen, “This marks a significant achievement for Nielsen because these services now include Portable People Meter (PPM) measurement, which Nielsen began incorporating as part of its Local Transformation initiative in October 2019. Additionally, Nielsen announced that its National People Meter (NPM) service has received continued MRC accreditation.”

This accreditation also includes demographic, household and persons-level estimates where Nielsen’s Viewer Assignment (VA) methodology is deployed, which is in 19 Set Meter + PPM markets, as well as in its national ratings service, thus signaling the MRC’s formal acceptance of Nielsen’s execution of the VA methodology.

Nielsen said it is “the only company to be accredited for both local and national TV ratings services, and the inclusion of PPM for TV measurement brings increased size and stability to its panel. Now more than ever, it is important for media owners and marketers with both national and local footprints to have the confidence in their data-based decisions to efficiently capitalize on audiences, reach their best consumer and drive return on investment.”

“We congratulate Nielsen on achieving this important milestone in the transformation of its TV measurement,” said George W. Ivie, MRC executive director and CEO.  “Even more importantly, we look forward to working with Nielsen in its ongoing work to continuously improve the quality of these and other services in its measurement product portfolio, and to provide the transparency into these services that is required by the industry to have the confidence it needs in how well its advertising and programming investments are measured.”

“We are excited about the future of our measurement services for our clients and the industry as a whole,” said Amilcar Perez, Nielsen EVP, national media clients. “The MRC accreditation process is extensive, encompassing all significant aspects of a measurement service’s design and execution. This assignation reaffirms Nielsen’s commitment to providing clients with trusted metrics via our best-in-class data science, technology and methodology that serve as the backbone of our measurement standards and solutions. At the same time, participation in the MRC process demonstrates Nielsen’s fidelity to transparency and recognition of the importance of independent, third-party validation.”

In October, Nielsen announced that it had completed a major transformation of its local television business combining advanced meter technology, big data and people-powered panels into its Local TV measurement service.

“The MRC’s accreditation of Local People Meter (LPM) + Portable People Meter (PPM) and Set Meter + PPM measurement services reflects Nielsen’s commitment to transparency and providing the best audience measurement to local markets,” said Catherine Herkovic, EVP/managing director, Nielsen Local TV. “It represents another major milestone in the transformation of our local television services.”

The MRC establishes industry standards for valid, reliable and effective media audience measurement research. MRC accreditation signals to the marketplace that a product/service meets the MRC minimum standards for the production and delivery of audience ratings.