Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen ratings, an audience measurement system of television viewership that has long been the deciding factor in canceling or renewing television shows by television networks. As of August 2024, it is the primary part of Nielsen Holdings. NMR began as a division of ACNielsen, a marketing research firm founded in 1923. In 1996, NMR was split off into an independent company, and in 1999, it was purchased by the Dutch conglomerate VNU. In 2001, VNU also purchased ACNielsen, bringing both companies under the same corporate umbrella for years. NMR is also a sister company to Nielsen//NetRatings, which measures Internet and digital media audiences. VNU was reorganized and renamed the Nielsen Company in 2007. NMR was separated again from NielsenIQ (the former ACNielsen) in 2021.
History The Nielsen TV ratings have been produced in the United States since the 1950–51 television season, statistically measuring which programs are watched by segments of the American population. The most well-known portion is the "diary". During the four "sweeps" months of February, May, July and November, Nielsen interviewers in Oldsmar, Florida, and Radcliff, Kentucky, ask homes to fill out a one-week diary of the programs watched in their household. The Nielsen sample included about 1,700 homes with audiometers and a rotating group of nearly 850 diary respondents by the early 1980s. Nielsen launched its Nielsen Homevideo Index (NHI) in 1980 to measure cable, pay cable, and VCRs; the NHI began offering daily cable ratings in 1982, with steady expansions made into the mid-2000s. In 2003, Nielsen began adjusting its counting methods and emphasized its sample in response to demographic changes and requests from some industry sectors. Nielsen introduced its automated Local People Meter (LPM) technology in New York and Los Angeles. The LPM enhanced Nielsen's measurement method by shifting from an active, diary-based system to a passive, meter-monitored one. The LPM accurately measures local-level markets instead of relying on a national sample. While diary-based surveys focused on quarterly sweeps, the industry has shifted towards year-round measurement thanks to the automated LPM system. In 1996, Nielsen Media Research began tracking computer, internet, and video game usage through telephone surveys. Nielsen Media Research is a sister company to Nielsen NetRatings, which measures internet and digital media audiences l telephone and internet surveys, and Nielsen BuzzMetrics, which measures consumer-generated media. Nielsen also conducts market research for the film industry through National Research Group (NRG). In September 2018, Nielsen acquired SuperData Research, an industry analysis firm that tracks viewing habits within the video game and esports spaces, which Nielsen planned to expand into. Later, in April 2021, Nielsen stated it would close SuperData and merge its analysis and tracking into Nielsen Sports. In September 2020, Nielsen began compiling a weekly top 10 list of most-watched shows on streaming platforms. After the divestiture of NielsenIQ (the former ACNielsen consumer research business) in 2021, Nielsen became solely a media audience measurement and analytics firm.
Nielsen TV ratings Nielsen TV ratings (commonly referred to as Nielsen ratings) are the audience measurement systems operated by Nielsen Media Research that seek to determine the audience size and composition of television programming in the United States using a rating system. Nielsen lost accreditation by the Media Rating Council (MRC) in 2022 due to inaccurate data reporting during the COVID-19 pandemic, but regained it in April 2023. Nielsen Media Research was founded by Arthur C. Nielsen, a market analyst who began his career in the 1920s with marketing research and performance analysis. The company subsequently expanded into radio market analysis in the late 1930s, culminating in the Nielsen Radio Index in 1942, which was meant to provide statistics as to the markets of radio shows. The first Nielsen ratings for radio programs were released the first week of December 1947. They measured the top 20 programs in four areas: total audience, average audience, cumulative audience, and homes per dollar spent for time and talent. In 1950, Nielsen then moved to television, developing a rating system using the methods he and his company had developed for radio. That method became the primary source of audience measurement information in the American television industry. In September 2020, Nielsen began compiling a weekly top 10 list of most-watched shows on streaming platforms.
Measuring ratings The data collection methods used to generate Nielsen TV ratings included:
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