CUME blowback…
TVWeek’s James Hibbard writes about bigtime blowback from the CUME ratings rule that NBC took advantage of last week…
Nielsen has heard the complaints very, very clearly. Spokesperson Ann Elliot says they’re re-evaluating the policy. Nobody thinks the rule will stay the same. Shows will probably be allowed to encore within any seven day period for a cume with the original night’s numbers likely still reported as usual.
“We’re definitely going to take into consideration everything we’ve heard this week and, yes, we’ve certainly heard a lot,” Elliot says. “We didn’t tell NBC how to use this new processing approach because we thought that would be inappropriate. NBC took a creative approach and used it staying within the bounds.”
Asked if anybody besides NBC has given positive feedback about the rule, Elliot says, “I don’t think anybody has come out and said ‘this is great.’”
