UPDATE, 17:11: Well, it was fast, sort of.
Nielsen has no Super Bowl LV ratings to report today, but they do have something to say about the unprecedented delay – though not much.
“Super Bowl numbers are still being processed and verified,” a blushing company spokesman finally said today. ‘We expect the final viewing figures, which will include out-of-home (OOH), to be available to the media tomorrow. We will update the press and industry accordingly when a final timeline is confirmed. ”
It sounds like more of us will let you know when we let you know, but we will not tell you why.
Ref calls ‘dirty’.
PREVIOUS, 16:21: There was a lot of history made at the Super Bowl last night for Tom Brady, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and head coach The Weeknd at halftime, but Nielsen is making some history today.
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While America waits and waits for the verdict on the viewers, it appears at the late hour that there will soon be no ratings for the Big Game for the first time.
The longtime data measurement business is literally the new definition of the phrase “You had one job” and has nothing to report on the Buccaneers’ 31-9 victory over former NFL champion Kansas City Chiefs on CBS yesterday. Quick branch ratings may be available early in the morning, I hear. However, as one well-positioned network source put it, ‘it’s someone guessing at this point, isn’t it?’
The problem seems to be wrong metrics that caused Nielsen to ‘reprocess’ their data. A distributed page with rating information went out earlier Monday but was quickly recalled. Over the course of the day, networks were informed that the numbers would be coming soon, only to hear that the release time had been pushed back again.
“It seems pretty certain that there will be nothing tonight,” another network administrator told Deadline about the delay. Normal unadjusted early numbers for overnight ratings are usually distributed to network customers at 08:00 PST. Around that time today, Nielsen let it be known that nothing would come down the pipe until at least 11:30 p.m.
On the and the overall unprecedented delay of the big draw on TV, Nielsen did not respond to requests from Deadline on the matter. We’ll update when we hear from them, or when the Super Bowl ratings come in – whichever comes first.
Although Nielsen has seen fractures in the past to recover its data from technical problems and extreme weather, the company has never had such a high profile as it does today.
The Super Bowl, watched by more than 100 million viewers with a big draw in 18-49 demographic advertisers, has been the biggest TV show year after year for decades.
Like the Oscars and the Emmys, the ratings for the big game are some of the most important information for the networks, which revolve around their coverage of the Super Bowl and the determination of advertising rates. Data that may gain more significance this year as a result of an NFL season full of coronavirus security protocols are changing schedules due to positive tests and a 10% drop in ratings. There is also an increase in the availability of the streaming championship game, which is slowly but surely taking more and more fans away from the traditional network viewing experience, or not, pandemic.
This is another way of saying: the ratings for the Super Bowl are really a big issue.