More than 20 members of Congress have sought the commission's involvement in a dispute over how Nielsen is changing the way it measures ratings in urban markets by introducing devices called local people meters.

The A. C. Nielsen Company measures ratings for television.

After all, there should be a way to measure not only standard TV ratings, but also ratings for online viewing.

This latest controversy centers on Nielsen's plan to measure ratings in big urban markets with the electronic devices known as people meters, which it has used since 1987 to gather its national ratings data.

Sussex County occasionally was a rated market when WSUS and WNNJ would pay Arbitron to take diaries in Sussex County in order to measure ratings here.

The People-Meter Factor Another possible explanation is the conversion last fall to a new method of measuring ratings, the so-called people-meter system.

Though HBO does measure ratings, "a program can be considered a success even if it is low-rated," said Mr. Bewkes.

It can't measure ratings.

The News Corporation helped the coalition coordinate an elaborate advertising and public relations campaign last year aimed at discouraging or preventing Nielsen from changing how it measures ratings in big urban markets with many minority households.

In 2012, it remained as the most-watched comedy series internationally based on data from Eurodata TV Worldwide, which measured ratings across five continents; it has held this position since 2006.