Fox Biz ratings remain private, for now

Steve Krakauer of TVNewser.com writes Monday that Fox Business Network‘s ratings will remain private for now while Nielsen works out some issues.

However, Krakauer also reports that Fox Business has beaten rival CNBC in the 8 p.m. hour twice in terms of viewers in the key 25-54 age group.

Krakauer writes, “TVNewser has learned that FBN will remain in Nielsen’s Access Stage, which prohibits public release of ratings information (although the network is receiving internal data). Once a network becomes a ‘full service client,’ the ratings can be released publicly and Nielsen can use the numbers as part of daily reporting.

“Nielsen spokesperson Gary Holmes wouldn’t comment specifically about the situation with FBN, but tells TVNewser, ‘That decision is a business decision made by the network. In the life of a network, a time comes when they decide that they want to share the ratings with advertisers. This process typically takes a year, year-and-a-half, sometimes two years. There’s no time frame. It’s really a business, strategic, decision.’

“According to FBN, there may be a different reason. FBN Senior Vice President of Advertising Sales Paul Rittenberg tells TVNewser, ‘Given Nielsen’s recent accuracy issues, we feel it’s best to wait until they can provide some precise degree of illumination on the data they’ve presented to us, especially given the margin of error on several of their digital measurements. Our number one priority is accountability for advertisers.'”

Read more here.