Ratings Blunder Hits Hard

(From The Boston Herald -- By Jessica Heslam)

A ratings snafu involving three New England Patriots games simulcast on WCVB-5 and ESPN robbed the Boston TV station of advertising revenue estimated by one ad executive at potentially more than $2 million.

Puzzled WCVB executives launched their own analysis and put pressure on NIELSEN to investigate the station's ratings for the games because they were much lower than in past years.

Nielsen researchers manually recalculated the ratings and uncovered an encoding error that had wrongly credited ESPN with close to two million viewers over the three games who were actually watching on WCVB.

WCVB president BILL FINE wouldn't disclose how much revenue the station lost, but in a letter to advertisers wrote that WCVB has "paid the price dearly."

An advertising executive, calculating off the new ratings, estimated WCVB's potential revenue loss at over $2 million.

Following that recalculation, WCVB's household rating for the December 3rd Pats 27-24 squeeker against the Baltimore Ravens game nearly tripled, leaping from an 8.5 to a 24.4 rating.

The new calculations mean ESPN loses its claim to the most watched program in cable TV history.

Its household rating nosedived from 28.9 to a 12.7.

Ratings Blunder Hits Hard