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Nielsen rating

American  

noun

  1. an estimate of the total number of viewers for a particular television program, expressed as a percentage of the total number of viewers whose television sets are on at the time and based on a monitoring of the sets of a preselected sample of viewers.


Etymology

Origin of Nielsen rating

First recorded in 1960–65; after the A.C. Nielsen Co., its originator

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

“But baseball’s TV producer, Bowie Kuhn, demanded that the show must go on. Bowie Kuhn was more interested in a Nielsen rating than in championship conditions, a betrayal of his commissioner’s responsibility.”

From Washington Post • Oct. 27, 2022

DeChambeau rated first in the Nielsen rating, while Watson won the MVP Index metric.

From Seattle Times • Mar. 2, 2022

The company doesn’t open its full data up to others, and its metrics for what counts as a “view” are very different from a box office receipt or Nielsen rating.

From The Verge • Sep. 8, 2021

But for him to launch a widely distributed television network in 80 million homes and get a Nielsen rating on it, I think would be very, very difficult.

From Salon • Sep. 14, 2020

And the 6.9 Nielsen rating topped every golf broadcast from the year other than the final round of the Masters.

From Golf Digest • Oct. 18, 2019