Morning Media Newsfeed: Nielsen Reveals Ratings Glitch

[emailonly]{{{ sbox300x250 }}}[/emailonly] Click here to receive Mediabistro's Morning Media Newsfeed via email. Nielsen’s Ratings Problem Is A Total Glitch (LostRemote) Nielsen Friday announced internal “ratings irregularities” that date back to March 2, 2014 and were “generally imperceptible until [the company] saw high viewing levels associated with fall season premiere week.” TVNewser The company will now reprocess all of the impacted data going back at least to Aug. 18 -- for entertainment, news and syndicated shows. TVNewser The company Saturday released updated data for the week of Sept. 22, which was the first week of 2014-15 TV season. As suspected, the inaccurate data favored ABC programs while hurting ABC’s competitors. The restated numbers are being most closely watched for revisions to the primetime ratings as new fall shows had their premieres. In the tight evening news race, World News Tonight With David Muir, had its numbers revised down, but it didn’t change the outcome. Muir’s newscast still won the week in the demo, and NBC Nightly News With Brian Williams won among total viewers. HuffPost Nielsen, the leading global measurement company and provider of television ratings data, said in a press release Friday that "a technical error" resulted in incorrect data over the course of about seven months. WSJ The difference in what was misattributed was less than 0.05 of a ratings point for about 98 percent to 99 percent of broadcast and syndicated TV shows, Nielsen said. The error didn’t affect overall TV viewership numbers, only how that viewership was credited to particular networks. Cable TV ratings weren’t affected by the glitch, it said. Dr. Nancy Snyderman, Crew Now in Mandatory Quarantine (TVNewser) NBC’s Dr. Nancy Snyderman was spotted out and about in Hopewell, N.J., near Princeton Thursday under a self-imposed, not government-mandated, quarantine after working with NBC News freelance cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, who was diagnosed with Ebola in Africa two weeks ago. TVNewser The New Jersey Department of Health issued a mandatory quarantine order Friday night for Snyderman and the other crew members who returned to the U.S. last Monday. Deadline Hollywood The department said in a statement that the group, which included a freelancer who has testing positive for the disease, had failed to adhere to a voluntary 21-day quarantine. HuffPost / Reuters They said none of the team has exhibited symptoms of the often fatal disease since returning from Liberia, one of three West African countries at the epicenter of the outbreak. The mandatory quarantine will ensure the group remains confined until Oct. 22, the end of a 21-day maximum incubation period for Ebola, Donna Leusner, a spokeswoman for the New Jersey Department of Health, said. "The NBC crew remains symptom-free, so there is no reason for concern of exposure to the community," she said. NBC News The NBC News freelancer who came down with Ebola while working in Liberia has made a significant improvement, his family said Saturday. Mukpo, 33, received a blood transfusion from another Ebola survivor, Dr. Kent Brantly, as part of his treatment at The Nebraska Medical Center. TVNewser His physical strength has increased and his appetite has returned, his family said in a statement. Fox, Apollo Complete Deal to Combine Shine, Endemol, Core Media (THR) Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox and Apollo Global Management have finalized a deal to combine Fox's Shine Group with Apollo's Endemol and Core Media Group to create a TV production powerhouse amid continued industry consolidation. Deadline Hollywood The companies acknowledged in May that they were considering such a deal to create a so-called mega-indie, similar to the one Discovery and Liberty Global recently created with their acquisition of All3Media. The companies didn’t disclose financial terms for the joint venture, although Endemol, Shine and Core will continue to operate as separate companies -- with Core also maintaining its own capital structure. NYT Included in the announcement was the news that Elisabeth Murdoch would step down from her position as chairwoman of Shine. Elisabeth, who is a daughter of Rupert Murdoch’s, started the production group in 2001 before selling it to her father's News Corporation a decade later for $673 million. The new combined group will operate in more than 30 countries and control a portfolio that includes more than 600 scripted and unscripted program formats, with libraries including thousands more. Fox and Apollo each will own half of the new venture and they will jointly manage the group. TheWrap As previously announced, Sophie Turner Laing, former managing director of content at BSkyB, will serve as the group's CEO. Completion of the transaction is subject to regulatory clearances and additional closing conditions. [emailonly]{{{ jodslot01 }}}[/emailonly] Gittrich Out at NBC (TVNewser) Greg Gittrich is leaving NBC where he was VP of NBC News Digital. “Right time for me to move on to a new thing,” Gittrich tweeted. NBC News SVP Julian March will oversee digital in the interim. Gittrich joined NBC in 2008, heading up the digital platforms for NBC’s O&Os before moving to NBC News in 2012. Talking New Media Gittrich joined NBC Universal in 2008 after eight years at the New York Daily News. Politico / Dylan Byers on Media Gittrich oversaw the redesign of NBCNews.com as the network’s relationship with Microsoft’s MSN ended. Traffic dropped dramatically as a result of the split with MSN, and six months later, in August, the site underwent another redesign. Despite the decline in traffic, videos on NBCNews.com have had a 33 percent increase since the split. Edward Snowden Doc Citizenfour Reveals Existence of Second NSA Whistleblower (THR) A second National Security Agency whistleblower exists within the ranks of government intelligence. That bombshell comes toward the end of Citizenfour, a new documentary from filmmaker Laura Poitras about NSA informant Edward Snowden that had its world premiere on Friday at the New York Film Festival. The Guardian Toward the end of Poitras’ portrait of Snowden, journalist Glenn Greenwald is seen telling Snowden about a second source. Snowden, at a meeting with Greenwald in Moscow, expresses surprise at the level of information apparently coming from this new source. Greenwald, fearing he will be overheard, writes the details on scraps of paper. Mediaite Citing his source, Greenwald says in the film that there are 1.2 million people on the U.S. government’s surveillance watch list. SNL Ratings Dive to All-Time Low (Mediaite) Ratings for the new season of Saturday Night Live have fallen to an all-time low in both total households and the all-important 18-49 demo. The decline began last season and continued even as Bill Hader, a popular former cast member, returned to host Saturday night. Deadline Hollywood Saturday night, SNL averaged a 3.8 rating in metered-market households and a 1.8 in adults 18-49 in the Local People Meters. That was down a tenth in each category from the previous week’s show hosted by Sarah Silverman (3.9, 1.9) and a season low. The Hader-hosted show tied the May 10 telecast hosted by Charlize Theron as the lowest-rated SNL ever in household and 18-49 ratings. [emailonly]{{{ sbox01 }}}[/emailonly] Rick Daniels Named Hartford Courant Publisher, Nancy Meyer Leaving for Florida Media Group (Hartford Courant) Rick Daniels, a veteran of the New England media industry, was named publisher and chief executive of the Hartford Courant Media Group on Friday, succeeding Nancy A. Meyer, who was promoted to lead a newspaper media group in Florida. Poynter / MediaWire Meyer will take over for Howard Greenberg, who will now focus exclusively on running the Sun Sentinel Media Group. Before coming to community news startup GoLocal24, Daniels was president and CEO of GateHouse Media New England. Time Inc., Union Hit Another ‘Impasse’ Over Contract (Capital New York) The Newspaper Guild of New York, which represents some 200 employees of Time Inc., announced Friday that its board had rejected what had been called a last, best contract offer from the company's management in a "nearly unanimous vote." The announcement from the Guild, which represents print, photo and video journalists and other newsroom employees, cites the company's intention to cut compensation and benefits for members but also several initiatives set to be undertaken by the newly spun-off magazine company to help resolve the $1.3 billion debt it was saddled with when it went public in June. Jon Tower Is Leaving MSNBC’s Morning Joe (TVNewser) Jon Tower is leaving MSNBC’s Morning Joe and joining CBS This Morning, where he’ll be supervising producer. “Even though he’s not moving on to a better place,” Joe Scarborough joked, “he is getting a wonderful opportunity. I’d be sad except for the fact that I know that Jon, Mika and I are going to work together again soon,” Scarborough added. [emailonly]{{{ sbox02 }}}[/emailonly] Western Media: Stop Ignoring The Central African Republic Crisis (CJR / Behind The News) With gunfire and mob attacks in the streets of the capital, the Central African Republic is teetering again on the edge of mass violence. Nine people killed were killed in two days, including a U.N. peacekeeper from Pakistan and a Muslim civilian whose dead body was decapitated and burned by an angry mob in the capital, Bangui. But world’s media are all but absent from the country. Time Out New York Film Critic Keith Uhlich Moves On (FishbowlNY) Friday was Keith Uhlich‘s last day at Time Out New York. On the freelance end, Uhlich has been recapping TV series The Knick for New York magazine. And on the Time Out front, the NYU alum tells us his final filed piece is a review of comedy-drama Rudderless, directed by William H. Macy. Uhlich, a member of the New York Film Critics Circle, had been with Time Out since February 2009. Guardian U.S. Names Ruth Spencer Managing Editor (Capital New York) Guardian U.S. editor Katharine Viner announced to staff Friday that culture editor Ruth Spencer has been promoted to managing editor. Spencer replaces Nell Boase, who left the company in May 2013. Spencer joined The Guardian in early 2012 as a community coordinator. Alex Needham, previously an assistant editor for Guardian Australia, will replace Spencer as Guardian U.S. culture editor. [emailonly]{{{ sbox03 }}}[/emailonly] Disney, DreamWorks Animation, Sony Hit With Another Antitrust Class Action (Deadline Hollywood) The legal floodgates have opened on DreamWorks Animation, Disney, Pixar and Sony as yet another class action has been filed against the ‘toon companies over alleged anti-poaching and wage-fixing deals. A former associate computer graphics supervisor at Robert Zemeckis’ ImageMovers, David Wentworth’s Oct. 2 filing in federal court is very similar to two previous class action suits put before the courts in the past five weeks. Netflix Now Charging Extra for 4K Ultra HD Content (Variety) Netflix offers only a handful of titles in eye-popping Ultra HD -- but to watch them, subscribers will have to pay for its most expensive service tier. New Netflix members who want access to Ultra HD must sign up for the “family” plan at $11.99 monthly, which allows simultaneous streaming of up to four programs. Previously, Netflix offered 4K content to subs of its standard plan, now $8.99 per month for new customers, which allows for two HD streams. AJ+ Hires Circa’s Chief Content Officer David Cohn (GigaOM) Al Jazeera’s new mobile-centric AJ+ venture just hired digital journalism heavyweight David Cohn, who had been Circa’s chief content officer ever since the launch of the news app a little more than two years ago. The hire is a big get for AJ+, which itself just launched its app a month ago, and comes just days after millennial-focused cable outlet Fusion nabbed Alexis Madrigal away from the Atlantic. Mediabistro Blogs GalleyCat Author and Activist Malala Yousafzai Wins Nobel TVNewser Did ABC Benefit From Nielsen Errors? FishbowlDC The Washington Blade Celebrates 45 Years FishbowlNY David Plotz Joins Atlas Obscura UnBeige Dwell on Design Debuts in NYC SocialTimes Hank Green Pulls Back the Veil on YouTube CPM AgencySpy Filmmaker Claims New GEICO Spot Ripped Him Off MediaJobsDaily New Study Shows People Prefer Same-Sex Offices 10,000 Words Shareaholic Talks New Features and Digital Advertising Inside Mobile Apps PhotoDirector Photo Editing Platform Comes to iOS InsideFacebook Facebook Now Placing Related Stories Under Personal Posts Lost Remote MTV Generating Buzz for EMA Ahead of 20th Anniversary Show AllFacebook HuffPost Continues to Dominate Facebook Interactions, Shares Among Publishers AllTwitter Gamers are Highly Active on Social Networks, Prefer Facebook to Twitter [STUDY] TVSpy Video Captures Police Officer Breaking NY1 Camera to Stop Reporter From Doing Job PRNewser NFL Fumbles on Domestic Violence Again, Accused of Hiding ‘Hundreds’ of Abuse Cases Advertise on Our Blog Network

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Morning Media Newsfeed: Nielsen Reveals Ratings Glitch | NBC Crew Quarantined

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