With Nielsen Media Research showing that viewers of Cable are almost twice as likely to not watch commercials, the Cable networks are saying that it is flawed calculations that are the cause of the disparity, not the reality of what's going on.
Broadcast networks generally lose around 5% percent of viewers while with cable it is shown to reach 8% to 10% of the audience during breaks, according to the Nielsen research.
The result of the differences is that some in the industry are opting out of the commercial ratings; NBC Universal, with the USA Network, Sci.Fi Network and Bravo, has already decided not to be part of the Dec. 11 release by Nielsen.
CAB (Cabletelevision Advertising Bureau) President Sean Cunningham wrote to members saying, "We do strongly believe that until all of the 
data/methodology issues relevant to the cable industry are resolved and correct data is being produced, opting into the data file for purposes of 'seeing how it looks & analyzing the data' will not serve both the individual cable network's or the Cable ad industry's best interests.
"We believe that jumping into early inclusion into this 'demonstration data' would allow only analysis of sub-standard data and potentially help to create bad first impressions of Cable's relative performance on commercial ratings, It is in this early phase of the 'demonstration data' in which Nielsen is clearly cable-challenged."
One of the major concerns is the seeming inability of Nielsen to properly measure whether a commercial spot showing is a local or national. Commercial ratings are only to be based upon national commercials.
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