NEWS20 October 2015

Italian TV audience measurement suspended following data leak

ITALY — Auditel, the Italian audience measurement committee, has suspended the publication of viewing figures for two weeks after personal data of the viewing panel’s families was disclosed.

Auditel will continue to record figures but will not make them public during the period. Nielsen, Auditel’s partner, has apparently said that it would replace the panel at its own expense, as well as expanding it to 15,600 families.

According to a story on telecompaper, Auditel has stated that it is using the period of suspension to “explore with its technical committee all the methodological issues by means of a thorough series of tests to protect its commitment to transparency and accountability”.

Mediaset, the Italian commercial broadcaster, stated on its website that “if the regular publication of ratings does not resume as planned, the company would be obliged to seek an alternative and legitimate alternative in order to reassure the market”.