The Media Rating Council’s just-announced accreditation actions during the period from Jul. 1-Sept. 30, 2026 include revoking accreditation for four Nielsen Audio PPM markets, and denying accreditation for an additional 18.
The markets where accreditation was revoked by the MRC include Baltimore, Jacksonville, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, while accreditation was denied for Austin, Boston, Dallas, Hartford, Houston, Las Vegas, Memphis, Nashville, New York, Norfolk, Orlando, Providence, Raleigh, Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, DC and West Palm Beach.
The report did not explain the reason for the decision.
MRC accreditation is a voluntary, independent audit that evaluates whether a ratings service’s methodology, sampling and data processing meet the council’s standards. Losing accreditation would not prevent Nielsen from publishing or selling its ratings data, but it would remove the MRC-accredited designation.
“Nielsen has been working closely with the MRC Audio Committee to address specific areas of concern within certain PPM markets,” a statement read. “Our teams launched a comprehensive transformation plan earlier this year, which has already shown initial improvem...