Nielsen Pocketpiece Archives

Archives Available:
October 1950 - December 1954
January 1955 - December 1959 (coming soon)
January 1960 - December 1964 (coming soon)
January 1965 - December 1969 (coming soon)
January 1970 - December 1974 (coming soon)
January 1975 - December 1979 (in progress)
January 1980 - December 1984
January 1985 - December 1989 (in progress)
January 1990 - September 1991 (coming soon)

Below is an index of full Nielsen National TV ratings reports, often referred to as the "Nielsen Television Index" or "Nielsen Pocketpieces." These will be added piecemeal over time as scans are able to be completed and this page will serve as an introduction to the scope of the project and an index of all of the reports posted on this site. 

My goal with this project is to digitize and publish every Nielsen Pocketpiece from October 1950 through September 1991 (and potentially beyond). October 1950 is the earliest one I've been able to locate and by the start of the 2000s, the Pocketpiece really started to become obsolete.

Aside from the many missing ones from between 1950-1954, there are currently a few reports in the later years that I am either missing completely or partially and I've provided a chart below to diagram exactly which ones these are. If anyone has any tips to fill these gaps, please email me using the Contact Form in the sidebar.

Missing Reports (1972-onward)
July 1972 - 1st and 2nd Reports
August 1972 - 1st and 2nd Reports
September 1972 - 1st and 2nd Reports
September 1973 - 1st and 2nd Reports
October 1973 - 1st and 2nd Reports
April 1978 - 2nd Report
December 14 - 20, 1987
May 27 - June 2, 1991

3 comments:

  1. Hello RatingsRyan,

    Out of curiosity, could it be possible for someone to theoretically gather the data points from all these pocketpiece reports (which appear to be very comprehensive) and reconstruct full final season rankings for the seasons where totals beyond 30th have not been presented before?

    This sounds like a great find, and I just want to make sure I understand the data that is presented in these reports.

    And out of curiosity, have you seen and not scanned any reports for the sections that are labeled "Coming soon"? I am curious because the 1970-71 season is the one I would be the most intrigued about as far as potential "reconstruction" of rankings goes as that was the season of the "Rural Purge".

    Either way, it sounds like you've stumbled upon a ton of interesting, detailed information that I have never seen before, and I look forward to hear back from you soon.

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    Replies
    1. Hello, yes you could theoretically do this. It would take a lot of manual effort, but definitely doable. You'd have to know the date range for each season because I believe most of the season averages from that period are only Sept-April, and not Sept-Sept.

      The pocketpieces contain the total day broadcast data, not just primetime, which is why they are each so long (40-50 pages). The 7 pages in the middle of the reports (A-1 through A-14) contain the primetime ratings which is what I think you're probably most interested in. I have scans of the majority of the primetime pages back to 1960 already and have been posting those separately from the complete pocketpieces. Here is 1960-61 for example: https://www.ratingsryan.com/2023/08/primetime-broadcast-tv-ratings-1960-61.html

      For 1970-71, I have the primetime pages for Aug. 31, 1970 through April 18, 1971 already scanned, and I'll be posting those soon after I get 1963-64 through 1969-70 posted.

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