KABC-TV, Nielsen Settle Suit Over Disputed Ratings

KABC-TV Channel 7 and A. C. Nielsen Co. have settled, on undisclosed terms, a lawsuit that KABC brought last June amid a controversy over the station’s alleged attempts to improperly boost its audience ratings.

The suit “is settled, and we continue to do business with each other,” said Larry Lasky, a Nielsen attorney in Chicago.

KABC sued the audience ratings company for excluding some KABC ratings from its May ratings guide because of a KABC news documentary profiling the so-called Nielsen families. The families are the viewers whom Nielsen studies to derive its ratings; Nielsen’s rules bar broadcasts of such news segments during the months when ratings are compiled, on grounds they would attract these viewers’ attention and cause ratings to soar.

John Severino, KABC’s general manager, did not return several telephone calls seeking comment. The station has contended that the documentary did not break Nielsen rules, noting that Nielsen’s chairman was interviewed for the segment.

The dropping of some KABC results shaved two points from the rating of KABC’s late-night news show and cost the long-dominant station its unchallenged leadership in overall news ratings. KABC sought a court injunction to try to keep Nielsen from publishing the May ratings books, but that bid was rejected by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jeffery K. Fields.

Lasky said KABC has continued to subscribe to Nielsen’s audience ratings service. He denied speculation that Nielsen had paid KABC to end the dispute.

Indeed, other industry officials suggested that KABC filed the suit primarily to put the best face on an embarrassing incident and had little expectation of gaining any other advantage with it.