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.

Look what was hanging on my door when I got home last night. Looks like it’s gonna be a good Fall for FS1!! pic.twitter.com/HygLO2Trtu

— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) August 15, 2019

• 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.

Obviously I can’t participate, but this really was on my door and came with contact info for a rep in Oldsmar so it’s legit. For anyone who says they’ve never known anyone who was asked to be part of the Nielsen ratings, now you do.

— Michael Mulvihill (@mulvihill79) August 15, 2019

• 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.