Nielsen Concedes Error, Reprocessing News Ratings

DAVID BAUDER

NEW YORK (AP) — Nielsen Media Research has conceded making an error and is performing a recount after the company's ratings on Tuesday initially indicated that ABC's "World News" most likely had its smallest audience ever.

The dispute with Nielsen was a downer for the network after the entertainment division — keyed by the National Basketball Association finals — won in the prime-time ratings for the first week since September. It was ABC's most-watched week in the summer in five years, according to Nielsen.

ABC asked Nielsen for an investigation after its ratings showed "World News" averaged 6.2 million viewers last week (4.3 rating, 9 share), its worst showing since at least 1987, when Nielsen's "People Meters" technology was introduced, and probably for many years before that. The previous week, the "CBS Evening News" hit a similar low point. ABC's average did not include Tuesday and Thursday's newscast, because "World News" was pre-empted in the West those nights for the NBA finals.

The network questioned the Friday night ratings, when Nielsen said "World News" was watched by 4.1 million people, well below its Friday average of 7.3 million this year. Friday marked TV's digital transition, when analog signals were cut off and an estimated 2.5 percent of the nation's TV homes lost their TV transmissions.