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Weather Channel Owner Sues Nielsen Ratings Over Sky-High Fee

Weather Channel Owner Sues Nielsen Ratings Over Sky-High Fee

(Bloomberg) -- The owner of the Weather Channel accused Nielsen Co. in a lawsuit of using a monopoly over TV ratings to force it to pay more than 10 times what it was paying before it bought the popular news site in 2018.

Nielsen jacked up CF Entertainment Inc.’s monthly bill from $41,000 to $475,000 after it bought the channel, according to the complaint filed Friday in Chicago federal court.

The California-based media company says this violated its 2017 contract with Nielsen and is “yet another attempt by Nielsen to abuse its monopolistic power over television ratings to extort a massive windfall from a smaller market participant.”

Nielsen declined to comment.

The suit was reported earlier by the Hollywood Reporter.

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