Ratings

[Griffin]

At what point do TV retings become obsolete? Network execs still make their decisions on what shows to air, what shows to cancel, and when to air them based on the ratings they get, and the share they get for that particular time slot, but who still watches TV that way? With Tevo's and the internet, people can watch whatever they want to watch, whenever they want to watch it. Winning a time slot doesn't seem to really mean that much anymore. I would imagine Nielsen's ratings are becoming less and less representative of how much a particular show actually gets watched. A better indicator would be how much a show gets Tevo'ed, or how many people are downloading its torrent. And never mind trying to sell ads based on ratings; when was the last time you watched your favorite TV show with commercial interruptions? So why do networks still care about ratings?

 

[Linderbee]

There's a much larger % of the population (I'm guessing) that doesn't have TiVo than does. Just like there's a huge chunk out there that doesn't have computers (so a poll on here would not be representative of the actual statistics).

I agree, that new ways of advertising are going to have to be found, and they've been working on that steadily. I don't go to the movies often, so I was surprised to see how many commercials (not trailers) were run before the movie--makes sense--captive audience. We'll never escape it

 

[abomb]

Nielsen has a second set of ratings that takes into account DVR viewings.

We are talking about a rating system that, at the core, is 50+ years old. I dont see it changing anytime soon given the magnitude of advertising dollars that are spent based on fractions of ratings shares.

With all the technology, I'd like to see TiVo, DirectTV or one of the other major players include some aggregate data mining into their receivers. It could work like this;

Consumer opts in or opts out to send their viewing data (with no individually identifiable data) via the set-top box. The data is streamed back to TiVo or DirectTV; what the household was tuned to, what they DVR'd, if they watched that DVR'd episode, etc. That information would allow the company to release weekly, stunningly accurate accounts of what people are truly watching;

Most Watched Shows of the Week - watched or recorded and watched before midnight of the sample day.

Most Recorded Shows of the Week - Most DVR'd shows

Total Viewers - Shows watched or recorded and watched before the next episode airs

Heck, the company could even offer a $2-$5 rebate or a free premium channel to households that provided that data as a thank you.

I bet we would see a stark difference between these results and what is currently reported using the dinosaur of a ratings system.

 

[Linderbee]

I'd opt-in in a heartbeat if they did it that way.

 

[Covert Rain]

I was part of the Neilson ratings last year. They used my TIVO data to get my ratings information. When I got my letter they said I was part of a pilot group to gather ratings information via TIVO.

This came on the heals of TIVO saying they were going to start pitching for a new ratings system etc... When the TIVO data started to be posted, their top 20 shows looked really different in the ratings. People began to question how accurate Neilsons really was. Neilson soon after struck a deal with several companies including TIVO to mine the data.

In that same letter it also stated that it was yet undetermined how my ratings information would impact the overall ratings system. To me that was code speak for "we don't want the DVR data to ruin our system and make ours absolete". I seriously doubt Neilson's TIVO informaton gathering was about making their ratings system any more accurate. They were trying to crush the revolt before it started.