Nielsen ‘regrets’ nine month error which saw Ninemsn video views doubled
Source: Nielsen
Audience measurement company Nielsen says it “regrets” an error which has meant it has been over-reporting the figures for Microsoft and Ninemsn video streams since last July.
Irregularities with March’s figures were first reported in today’s edition of The Australian (paywall), however Nielsen has told Mumbrella the error, which has effectively seen the number of video streams being double counted in the rankings, was going on for nine months.
This is not the first time Nielsen has had a major error in its video streaming numbers and comes at a sensitive time for the company as it prepares to retender to Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) preferred provider of online audience measurement contract.
A spokeswoman for Mi9 has said the company does not use the Nielsen rankings to sell its ad inventory and reiterated calls or a consistent measurement system for online video in the industry.
In a statement issued this afternoon Nielsen said: “Nielsen regrets this error and have implemented additional process improvements to ensure this is not repeated.”
The company said it had found error and it had now been fixed. “There was an issue identified with the Ninemsn streaming figures and we worked with Mi9 on what had happened and why,” said a Nielsen spokeswoman.
“The outcome was that there was an error in time and stream metrics that unintentionally counted up to the brand. This error has now been fixed and is reflected in the latest months figures (31 million), which are now correct. In terms of how the figures are used (strategy or trading) this would most likely vary between organisations.”
This is not the first time that Nielsen has had irregularities in its video measurement. As Mumbrella reported last July, there was surprise in the market among publishers after a dramatic rise followed by a sudden drop in video viewing for News Corp Australia’s websites in the June numbers. The error was quickly corrected in the July figures.
“This issue relating to Ninemsn video streaming data is unrelated to issues experienced in June 2013 for News Corp Australia,” said Nielsen. “In that circumstance, data inconsistencies were due to technological challenges with the implementation of Nielsen tagging on new technology deployed by News Corp Australia.”
Mi9, which owns Ninemsn and appear in the video stream under Microsoft, said the error was Nielsen’s and that it was the publisher who raised the issue.
“There was an error in Nielsen’s reporting system which has temporarily inflated the Mi9 stream numbers,” said a spokeswoman. “Mi9 actively alerted Nielsen to anomalies which resulted in the correction in the April numbers. Mi9 have absolutely not ‘inflated’ our figures.”
The publisher noted that it does not sell ads against the video streaming data from Nielsen’s video census.
She added: “We support the establishment of a common industry standard for video stream measurement, and we’re working with Nielsen to make this happen – but clearly they are not there yet. We continue to sell video against our own, consistent Mi9 data.”
Earlier this year the IAB began an open tender process for its preferred provider of online audience measurement. Nielsen has held the contract since 2011 and had the contract renewed without tender last year.
This year’s tender is expected to see Nielsen face competition from a number of suppliers eager to secure part of the lucrative contract for online audience measurement.
Nic Christensen
Great article. I have also noticed the ‘9 Newsbreak’ app for IPhones/iPad does not play news clips the first time, it “buffers” and only plays audio. However when it is replayed it works just fine. This applies to every clip and on diffrent iPhones. This suggests they want two hits instead of one, very convenient for doubling the hit counter and viewers.
User ID not verified.
So, how do we know the video stats for the other publishers are correct? Coming just a few weeks after Neilson released new numbers showing they had “found” an extra 2m internet users in australia, it doesn’t instill a lot of confidence.
User ID not verified.
I commented about this in July of last year when the questions arose about data released for video streaming at News. I have been waiting for something to come out about it since then. At the time various people stepped forward to defend the system and even though they didn’t really understand my comments had convinced themselves that they could rationalise the numbers being released. It is clear changes to the system were made in the middle of 2013, that had an effect on the data being produced it is unfortunate that it has taken until now to get to the bottom of the issue.
If as much time was spent investigating the issues and fixing them as was spent defending the flawed data may be we would all have been better off.
User ID not verified.