Sandy knocks out NYC November ratings

For several days after Hurricane Sandy hit, Nielsen’s ratings were snagged by delays, and just as the November sweeps began.

But within days the company began getting its ratings releases back on the regular schedule, and it seemed that perhaps ratings would suffer no more from the superstorm.

That thinking proved all too naïve.

Yesterday Nielsen said it will not be releasing any data for New York City for November, because the storm KO’d too many households in its citywide sample.

Households in New York and New Jersey were without power for weeks following the storm, with some still unconnected. Other Nielsen households were simply destroyed in the destruction that cased billions in damages.

NYC won’t be the only market affected. Nielsen is currently poring over data from Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland and Philadelphia, other markets hit by the storm, and may decide to leave some days out of the November reports, according to MediaPost.

The decision will undoubtedly draw heat from media people, who use the ratings as currency in their negotiations with networks for ad time.
 

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