‘Cyber attack’ ruins Big Brother finale ratings
TV ratings for Wednesday night’s Big Brother finale are on hold as Nielsen continues to investigate a suspected cyber attack that has sent a huge week in Aussie television spiralling.
Confidential
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A suspected cyber attack has caused further delays to TV ratings following an “unexpected disruption” at Nielsen Data Centre earlier this week.
A spokeswoman at OzTam told Confidential that ratings for Tuesday and Wednesday are currently unavailable as the matter is investigated by Nielsen.
“We’re sorry to inform you that delivery of TV ratings data remains unavailable,” OzTam said.
“Nielsen has confirmed that all households are still collecting viewing data and that referencing sites have not been impacted. Nielsen’s global and local infrastructure teams are currently working to resolve the issue as fast as possible and are keeping us informed. With continued thanks for your patience.”
It comes during a crucial week in television with Channel 10’s MasterChef and Channel 7’s Big Brother both airing their grand finales this week.
This means Channel 7 will be forced to wait for figures from Wednesday night’s Big Brother finale.
TV expert Rob Mcknight said the possible hacking is a blow to networks.
“It seems Russian and Chinese hackers didn’t like the fact Mat was voted out of the Big Brother house,” TV Blackbox founder McKnight said.
“While there have been outages in the past, a cyber attack on the ratings system is very strange indeed. The ratings will come through eventually though as all the data is stored locally in the ratings box at each household, so while the delay is frustrating we will eventually find out the results of last night’s ratings.
“You just have to feel sorry for everyone in the TV industry who will be walking around like Zombies today, not knowing how to feel without the validation of ratings.”
A spokeswoman for Nielsen said it’s unclear what exactly went wrong.
“Nielsen has become aware of an unexpected disruption relating to the Australian TV Audience Measurement (TAM) data centre environment,” the spokeswoman said.
“The day’s TV viewing data will be collected and processed once functionality is restored.
This means that overnight data for Tuesday will be delayed.
“Our team is dedicated to resolving this matter swiftly. In the meantime, we will be sure to keep the industry informed as new information on the matter becomes available.”
A spokeswoman for OzTAM, which uses Nielsen figures, said ratings reports for Tuesday are currently unavailable.
“Nielsen has advised OzTAM of an unexpected disruption relating to their Australian TV Audience Measurement (TAM) data centre environment,” OzTAM said.
“Nielsen is working to resolve this matter swiftly and is keeping us informed. OzTAM will forward Tuesday’s ratings reports when available.”
On Monday night, MasterChef had an impressive 1.5million metro viewers tuned in to watch Emelia Jackson being crowned this year’s winner.
The night before, 911,000 viewers watched Guy Sebastian’s younger brother Chris announced as the winner of The Voice on Channel 9.
Originally published as ‘Cyber attack’ ruins Big Brother finale ratings