Disconnecting Nielsen

"Today is the day. The nice folks from the Nielsen company are coming out to disconnect all their equipment. Now that our commitment is over I can tell you that we have been a Nielsen family for the last two years. This is the second time we have been a part of the Nielsen Ratings system and it’s kind of a hoot knowing that what you watch on tv influences the ratings at least somewhat. One of our technicians told us we represented 60,000 households. Wow, that’s alot of folks channel surfing.

"Even though we represented 60,000 households of viewers, Jericho was still canceled. Moonlight was still canceled. I’m not convinced my Nielsen vote helped at all there. But I watched faithfully and always made sure Devoted Spouse and I were both logged in on the remote."



"Nielsen, the fumbling audience measurement company notorious for snapping up the competition instead of building a better product for market, is doing the print industry a favor and promising not to get involved in measuring its audience. Even though its new “anywhere/anytime” initiative promised to be able to measure all media consumption, David Calhoun’s band of incompetents won’t be treading on FAS-FAX territory.

Not only that: Nielsen is looking to get out of print entirely."

ClueLes Moonves and Nielsen Ratings

Can you say ClueLes? This man is the head of CBS? Quincy Smith sees more people switching to the Internet yet CBS cancels Jericho which had so many people watching online? I think ClueLes Moonves let his wounded ego get in the way of Jericho making him tons of money online.


"CBS's CEO Leslie Moonves told reporters on a conference call that acquiring access to CNet's large online audience in order to distribute media content from CBS was "a large part" of CBS' motivation in going after the San Francisco-based online company.

"Our idea is to have our content wherever, whenever you can get it, and adding CNet just makes that happen faster," Moonves said.

Moonves said he saw opportunities for distributing CBS news, music and other content on CNet's online outlets, and also for tapping CNet's significant online advertising sales operation to boost over ad growth for the media company.

CBS's chief of interactive business Quincy Smith has been moving aggressively to find new online outlets for its entertainment programming as more people shift their media consumption from traditional outlets like TV and radio to the Internet."



"Practically everyone has heard the terms 'TV ratings' or 'Nielsen ratings', but very few people, even in the entertainment industry really understand how these ratings work.

Many people think of Nielsen as a public service, but this is far from the truth. Nielsen provides data only to those who pay for it. Nielsen's clients are, for the most part, television networks and the companies who advertise on those networks.

Nielsen has been under fire recently, being blamed for the cancellation of some television shows that have very faithful, if not huge audiences. Most notable are is the recently canceled CBS show Jericho. This show was canceled after its first season, but a well-organized effort, which saw tens of thousands of pounds of peanuts sent to the network execs at CBS resulted in the show being picked up for a second season, only to be canceled yet again due to Nielsen numbers which would look great to the vast majority of networks, but which CBS felt simply weren't good enough."

Nielsen Kills Moonlight Too

"Dear The Powers That Be at CBS:

Once again, you got me sucked into a drama and reward me by YANKING it off the air! Gee, didn’t you try the same approach with “Jericho”? I thought I learned my lesson after that stunt, but I guess I’m a slow learner. Forget it! You can put the best drama on next season, with the best actors and actresses, and I am NOT going to watch it. Because I know that as soon as I get involved, work my schedule around watching it, find the episodes engaging – then – it’ll get the axe."



“In the weeks leading up to this prelude to the upfront advertising marketplace, the Media Rating Council quietly met, reviewed a crucial audit of Nielsen’s so-called C3 ratings system, and opted to withhold accreditation for what will be the currency for billions of dollars in TV advertising buys.”

Confused? Allow us to explain. You know those upfront presentations all the networks are hosting to solicit ad buys for the upcoming television season? Those billion dollar deals are based on Nielsen data that hasn’t passed muster for the second year in a row.

And then it gets worse."

I am so tired of people not understanding that Jericho fans, as well as fans of many cancelled shows, do and did show up to watch on TV but it's Nielsen Ratings that refuse to count us. The networks allow this to happen and they have to know not all of us are being counted. We will lose many more great shows until Nielsen is removed from their death grip on the networks.

"CBS execs aren't using those words, of course: They love their online fans! But they're done listening to them.

This spring CBS paid attention to a noisy group of Webheads who demanded the return of "Jericho", a show that real world viewers didn't care for but which supposedly had a huge online fan base. The problem -- after CBS revived the show, the online fans didn't show up to watch the show on TV."

Nielsen, Nuts, and Moonlight

"TV ratings giant Nielsen Media Research on Tuesday hosted perhaps the strangest protest in the company's history — in fact, the first protest of any sort that company officials can recall happening.

Just more than 1,000 pounds of fresh, salted, still-in-the-shell peanuts were delivered to the loading dock of Nielsen's Oldsmar campus as part of a protest by determined fans of the now-canceled TV show "Jericho."

That's 21 50-pound canvas sacks of peanuts — $1,212 worth — all bought and paid for by "Jericho" fans who want to bring the show back to television and blame Nielsen for issuing the low ratings that CBS cited in canceling the show."


Florida Nielsen workers are furious.

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Just read that Moonlight has been cancelled.




"CBS' vampire drama "Moonlight" will not rise again.

Sources confirm the fan favorite will not be renewed by the network for a second season.

CBS declined to pickup the series because it was failing to hold its "Ghost Whisperer" lead-in and declined in the ratings post-strike. Last Friday's episode garnered a 2.0 rating among adults 18 to 49.

The news will doubtlessly devastate "Moonlight" fans, which have been very passionate for the show by any standard. Recently fans organized a nationwide blood drive to rally viewer support for a renewal.