FSN1 exec get picked as possible Nielsen household, jokes it’s going to be a ‘good fall’ for his network

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FSN1 executive vice president of strategy Michael Mulvihill was apparently picked as a potential Nielsen household — and posted a tweet joking “Looks like it’s gonna be a good Fall for FS1!!”

  • Mulvihill tweeted a photo of a door hanger that was apparently left at his residence.
  • Despite that rather informal text printed on the label affixed to it (maybe designed to appear “hip” to attract millennials?), Mulvihill tweeted later he believed it to be legit.

  • In general, Nielsen rules prohibits people who work in the media or television from participating as a Nielsen household to avoid any impropriety or artificially inflated ratings — just like Mulvihill joked might happen to his network.
  • About 24 minutes after he tweeted the joke, Mulvihill tweeted again clarifying “Obviously I can’t participate.”
  • Ironically, Mulvihill cites Nielsen as a source in his Twitter bio.

  • Nielsen typically reaches out to families in each market to request they participate in various ratings data collection methods.
  • Prior to last year, rural areas still used paper diaries that relied on members of each family to record what they watched by hand.
  • With that method obviously prone to both error and inaccuracies, Nielsen finally ditched paper diaries in favor of a variety of electronic monitoring technology.