Nielsen reveals Nine and SBS as the affected stations on TV time code discrepancies
Media research company Nielsen has revealed the TV channels impacted by a time code error on up to 250,000 TV ads spots, which ran in the first half of this year.
In a note to affected agencies and networks Monique Perry, head of Nielsen’s Media business, explained it had identified a time stamp issue in its Advertising Information Service (AIS) spot monitoring files.
According to Nielsen, the internal clocks used to allocate time stamps slowed by a few minutes, on a limited number of machines between 1 January and 27 May, 2014 impacting reporting on Channel Nine in Melbourne, Channel Nine in Adelaide, SBS Adelaide and SBS Perth.
Stations and timings impacted by the Nielsen time code error
The note says they are now working in consultation with the MFA and AANA and have reviewed the overall campaign impact of the time stamp issue. It adds that it stands by its previous statement that the issue impacted only one per cent of the 25m spots collected in this period.
“We must carefully consider the confidentiality of both the Agency supporting us and their client data so we cannot provide a full detailed analysis to market,” said Perry in the note.
“The impact analysis was run independently on a sample of 17 campaigns. The campaigns we analysed had a mixture of activity on affected and non-affected stations, as we wanted to understand the total campaign impact. The impact did vary from campaign to campaign and by demographic and was affected by many factors such as station split, budget, length of campaign and program selection.”
Nielsen also emphasised that ad spend data had not been impacted, nor had data in its Landsberry & James’ AQX systems.
“We certainly take this seriously and have communicated openly in the first instance with the MFA, Agency involved and the two networks involved,” wrote Perry.
“The issue is not related to OZ TAM’s TV ratings measurement. The issue was corrected within 48 hours of being identified and a new platform has been put in place as well as both automated and human checks which safeguard against similar events occurring in future.”
Nic Christensen
