The lack of detailed sales data is nothing new from Nielsen and not a conspiracy by the big corporate entertainment companies. Nielsen is independent from any entertainment company (it's parent company owns The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard magazines and the Nielsen TV ratings, among other entities). The reason it doesn't provide specific and detailed numbers is simple business. Nielsen makes its money by selling its data, in this case mostly to the studios and entertainment companies. If it made specific sales figures widely available to news outlets for free, it wouldn't be able to sell that same data to its many clients who could pick it up for free on the Net.
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The lack of detailed sales data is nothing new from Nielsen and not a conspiracy by the big corporate entertainment companies. Nielsen is independent from any entertainment company (it's parent company owns The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard magazines and the Nielsen TV ratings, among other entities). The reason it doesn't provide specific and detailed numbers is simple business. Nielsen makes its money by selling its data, in this case mostly to the studios and entertainment companies. If it made specific sales figures widely available to news outlets for free, it wouldn't be able to sell that same data to its many clients who could pick it up for free on the Net.