Nielsen Online makes progress with MRC audit

US-- It's been all quiet on the web audit front for more than a year – but out of the blue Nielsen Online revealed today it had completed the first stage of the Media Rating Council's (MRC) assessment of its online audience measurement system.

The company and its rival ComScore committed to undergo MRC audits last May after a challenge from Randall Rothenberg, president of the Interactive Advertising Bureau, who said the industry had grown tired of seeing discrepancies between the website audience numbers reported by the two firms and those produced by publishers' own server logs.

Nielsen said this morning that the MRC had now completed the audit covering NetSight, the firm's metering technology, which sits on the computers of panel members recording the websites they visit and when.

The company is now moving through additional phases of the audit and has also committed to include its SiteCensus and VideoCensus products in the assessment process.

Nielsen Online's senior vice president of measurement science Mainak Mazumdar said: “We look forward to completing the remaining components of the MRC audit and eventually receiving the recognition of [MRC] accreditation.”

Internationally, the firm has reviews of its methodology underway in Australia and France.

ComScore has not as yet given an update on the status of its audit, but a source told Research that, like Nielsen, progress was being made.

Author: Brian Tarran