QUICK TAKES - June 17, 2009

Nielsen Media Research has conceded that it made an error and is performing a recount after the company’s ratings Tuesday initially indicated that ABC’s “World News” most likely had its smallest audience ever.

ABC asked Nielsen for an investigation after its ratings showed “World News” averaged 6.2 million viewers last week, its worst showing since at least 1987, when Nielsen’s “People Meters” technology was introduced, and probably for many years before that.

The network questioned the Friday night ratings, when Nielsen said “World News” was watched by 4.1 million people, well below its Friday average of 7.3 million this year. Friday marked TV’s digital transition, when analog signals were cut off and an estimated 2.5 percent of the nation’s TV homes lost their TV transmissions.

Some of the ABC affiliates that had made the digital switch early were inadvertently left out of the news ratings, Nielsen said. The company plans to issue new ratings today.