TV Ratings: Nielsen, Amazon TNF Numbers Differ, Here's Why..

By the Nielsen company’s count, 7.8 million people watched Amazon Prime’s coverage of last Thursday’s NFL game between New Orleans and Arizona. But Amazon says no, there were actually 8.9 million people watching, reports The AP.

After each of its Thursday night games this season, Amazon has publicly contradicted Nielsen in this manner, one of the boldest challenges ever to a company that for generations has monopolized the count of people watching programs on television.

Neither company is saying the other is wrong, but neither is backing down, either.

Nielsen, as it has for years, follows the viewing habits in a panel of homes across the country and, from that limited sample, derives an estimate of how many people watch a particular program. That number is currency in the media industry, meaning it is used to determine advertising rates.

Amazon, in the first year of an 11-year contract to stream Thursday night games, says it has an actual count of every one of its subscribers who streams it — not an estimate. The games are also televised in the local markets of the participating teams, about 9% of its total viewership each week, and Amazon uses Nielsen’s estimate for that portion of the total.

Through six weeks, Nielsen says the Thursday night games have averaged 10.3 million viewers. Amazon says the average is 12.1 million. Amazon’s estimate has been bigger than Nielsen’s each week.

Since different methodologies are being used, it’s no surprise that there are differences in the estimate, she said.

The dispute has clear implications for the future. Streamers haven’t had much incentive for measurements of daily viewing to be publicized, in part because people don’t watch their shows the same way as broadcast television, and they haven’t needed numbers verified from a third-party source for advertisers.

But with Netflix about to introduce advertising, that can all change very rapidly. And if other companies develop technology that can measure viewing more precisely, the precedent has now been set for publicly disputing Nielsen’s numbers.

In prime time last week, NBC was the top-rated network, averaging 5.1 million viewers. CBS had 4.7 million, Fox had 4 million, ABC had 3 million, Univision had 1.4 million, Ion Television had 950,000 and Telemundo had 880,000.

📺Top 20 Prime-Time Shows for Oct 17-23 (Total Viewers)

1. NFL Football: Pittsburgh and Miami, NBC, 15.53 million.

2. “NFL Pregame” (Sunday), NBC, 13.09 million.

3. NFL Football: Seattle at L.A. Chargers, Fox, 12.81 million.

4. “The OT,” Fox, 9.88 milllion.

5. “Football Night in America,” NBC, 9.53 million.

6. “60 Minutes,” CBS, 7.97 million.

7. “FBI,” CBS, 7.11 million.

8. “Chicago Fire,” NBC, 7.05 million.

9. “NCIS,” CBS, 6.91 million.

10. “The Equalizer,” CBS, 6.9 million.

11. “Chicago Med,” NBC, 6.88 million.

12. “Young Sheldon,” CBS, 6.8 million.

13. “The Voice” (Monday), NBC, 6.23 million.

14. “The Voice” (Tuesday), NBC, 6.13 million.

15. “FBI: International,” CBS, 6.09 million.

16. “Ghosts,” CBS, 6.08 million.

17. “Blue Bloods,” CBS, 5.91 million.

18. Baseball: NLCS, San Diego at Philadelphia, Fox, 5.74 million.

19. “Chicago PD,” NBC, 5.58 million.

20. “The Neighborhood,” CBS, 5.51 million.

📺BROADCAST NETWORKS NEWSCASTS

David Muir, Norah O'Donnell, Lester Holt

ABC’s “World News Tonight” won the evening news ratings race, averaging 7.7 million viewers, NBC’s “Nightly News” had 6.5 million and the “CBS Evening News” had 4.7 million.

According to TV Newser citing Nielsen live-plus-same-day data for the week of Oct. 17, World News Tonight averaged 7.68 million total linear viewers, the second-largest audience of any U.S. TV show, excluding sports programming. The newscast also averaged 1.275 million adults 25-54 this past week

NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, unlike its ABC and CBS competition, posted week-to-week viewer growth across the board. The second-ranked evening newscast averaged more than 6.54 million total viewers on linear this past week, which is up +2% from the prior week and the newscast’s largest total audience in three weeks.

CBS Evening News with Norah O’Donnell averaged more than 4.68 million total linear viewers this past week. That’s +3% from the previous week, a more substantial week to week gain that what its competition saw. However, the 4.68 million viewer number happens to be -4% from the year-ago week. 

📺LATE NIGHT TV

Graphic Courtesy of RoadMN

📺CABLE TV

TBS was the most-watched cable network, averaging 2.85 million viewers in prime time. ESPN had 2.68 million, Fox News Channel had 2.26 million, MSNBC had 1.09 million and TNT had 1.05 million.

FNC averaged 1.48 million viewers and 203,000 adults 25-54 in total day this past week. The 1.48 million is +4% and the 203,000 (No. 3 on basic cable) is also +4% from what the network averaged in those two categories the previous week (Oct. 10).

TV Newser reports Fox News averaged 2.3 million total viewers in primetime this past week, up +5% from the prior week and No. 3 on all of basic cable behind an ALCS-driven TBS (2.94 million) and a Monday Night Football/college football-driven ESPN (2.8 million). Additionally, FNC averaged 293,000 adults 25-54 in primetime this past week, +7% from the previous week and No. 5 on basic cable, behind ESPN (1.23 million), TBS (1.07 million) an NLCS-driven Fox Sports 1 (637,000) and NBA premiere week-driven TNT (528,000).

Graphics Courtesy of RoadMN

In terms of individual programming, The Five is the most-watched cable news show for the ninth consecutive week. The news talk panel program averaged 3.4 million total viewers during the week of Oct. 17, up a bit from the prior week. Tucker Carlson Tonight is second place in total viewers (3.2 million at 8 p.m.), with Jesse Watters Primetime (2.9 million at 7 p.m.), Hannity (2.75 million at 9 p.m.) and Special Report with Bret Baier (2.42 million viewers at 6 p.m.) round out the top five.

Fox News is home to the week’s top 10 cable news shows in total viewers and 13 of the top 15. MSNBC’s 9 p.m. hour ranks No. 10, while The Last Word with Lawrence O’Donnell ranks No. 14.

Tucker Carlson Tonight remained No. 1 on cable news among adults 25-54, averaging 469,000 viewers from the measurement at 8 p.m. The Five ranked No. 2 (410,000), followed by Jesse Watters Primetime (372,000), Hannity (342,000) and Gutfeld! (328,000).  Fox News is home to the week’s top 15 cable news shows among adults 25-54.

📺COLLEGE FOOTBALL

ABC topped week eight of the college football season with a 2.7 rating and 4.75 million viewers for Syracuse-Clemson, snapping a streak of five-straight wins for the SEC on CBS.