Dave Meltzer Weighs In On How New Ratings System Affects WWE & AEW Shows
Last month, Nielsen introduced its new "Big Data + Panel" measurement, which combines ratings data from traditional households with statistics from smart TVs and set-top boxes. Nielsen's new system intends to deliver information that is supposed to be more accurate than its previous model, which was discontinued on October 1. Despite "Big Data + Panel" benefiting major networks and sports thus far, viewership for professional wrestling has declined by 15% since the upgrade. "WWE Raw" remains unaffected being on Netflix, and it's still unclear how "WWE SmackDown" will perform, but both "WWE NXT" and "AEW Dynamite" recorded historic lows, leading Dave Meltzer to analyze how the new metrics will impact both programs going forward.
"Now all of a sudden you're paying that much money for these numbers that are much lower, that changes the game. From a CW standpoint, I don't see any problems because the reality is they didn't pay a lot for 'NXT' to begin with and they got nothing else that's doing the 18-49 number," Meltzer stated on the "Wrestling Observer Radio." "AEW, it was a big money deal and I feel they're the most vulnerable because TBS and TNT, they don't need it. It's good to have and the ratings were certainly good enough to justify the money in the original deal but when you take that stuff down 15%, we don't know ... if the [HBO] Max numbers are real big then it still may be worth it, even with these lower numbers but we don't know what the Max numbers are for sure."
For now, AEW's viewership on HBO Max will not be included in the refined calculation system for Nielsen, meaning it will be difficult to determine the overall totals for "Dynamite" each week. Last Tuesday, "NXT's" ratings dropped by 135,000 viewers, while "Dynamite" posted its lowest figure ever in its usual timeslot during the first week of the new ratings model.
If you use any of the quotes in this article, please credit "Wrestling Observer Radio" with a h/t to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.