The major television rating system in the US, used by advertisers and broadcasters to determine the value of advertising time, based on how many people and what demographics say they watch particular shows. The company was founded in 1923 by Arthur C. Nielsen, Sr; in 1936 the “Audimeter” was introduced to track radio listening. It has continued to adapt: the Nielsen Hispanic Television Index appeared in 1991 to track Spanish-language television; Net Ratings were introduced in the 1990s.

The Nielsen broadcast sample includes 5,000 US households. Many critics complain that ratings are inaccurate because of the lack of representation of older people and ethnic minorities and reliance on faulty measures of attention. In 2000, Nielsen admitted it undercounted Spanish speakers in New York City, NY by 300,000 households.

However, even knowing the ratings’ weaknesses, the industry still needs an agreed-upon measure to commodify broadcast audience. This, in turn, leads to further fragmentation of the viewing public as stratified commodities.