Ratings delay drags on over ransomware

The delay to television ratings is set to drag on…

Sources tell TV Tonight that the situation is likely to stretch into next week, which would delay launch numbers for Australian Ninja Warrior, Farmer Wants a Wife, Between Two Worlds.

Nielsen has confirmed it is a victim of ransomware, after TV Tonight broke the story on a cyber attack yesterday.

“Nielsen has become aware of an unexpected disruption relating to the Australian TV Audience Measurement (TAM) data centre environment,” a spokesperson said.

“This disruption is derived from a ransomware attack in which Nielsen was the victim. As a result, TV ratings data remains unavailable. Nielsen can confirm, however, that all households are still collecting viewing data and that referencing sites have not been impacted.”

The delay to ratings has already impacted Big Brother‘s grand final amongst other shows in a multi-billion dollar television and advertising industry.

“Nielsen’s global and local infrastructure teams took the steps to contain the incident, launched a robust investigation and are currently working to resolve the issue as fast as possible,” they continued.

“We will be sure to keep the industry informed as new information on the matter becomes available.”

After COVID-19 already disrupted production, 2020’s delivers another punch to the industry.

Update:

Nielsen: “As a result of Nielsen’s investigation to date, we have today advised our clients that we are aiming to have TV Ratings data available by Wednesday, 29 July. However, the team at Nielsen are working incredibly hard to get data available and released before this date and will keep clients informed of any revised timelines.