TV's changing landscape may prompt CBS to drop the Nielsen ratings service
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Variety reports that TV's most-watched network is currently is prepared to drop its contract with Nielsen, valued at $100 million, which expires at the end of the year. "At issue is a long-running complaint from TV networks that Nielsen isn’t measuring the many different audiences for their programming as well as it should," reports Brian Steinberg. "As smartphones, mobile tablets and broadband-connected TV’s gain more consumer acceptance, audiences are increasingly able to stream their TV favorites in on-demand fashion, making the task of counting them exponentially more difficult. TV networks have long based their advertising rates on Nielsen’s measure of linear TV audiences, which have slipped as consumers embraced Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and other streaming and on-demand options."
