One of the things that has always irked me about how a city is perceived is the Nielson Ratings formula to determine market size. It affects so many things that people don't know about -- quality of TV news to bowl game selections to general perception.
Admittedly, we tend to pick and choose our numbers. For example, Phoenix is now the 5th largest city in the country, but the Phoenix metropolis ranks only 13th. How they arrive at the figure is baffling, considering Phoenix is surrounded by 8 incorporated areas with more than 100,000 people, and another 11 with 10,000 or more. Somehow we only arrive at a little more than 4 million people, just a few subdivisions behind the Bay, and a few hundred thousand behind Boston and Detroit.
OK, so in reality the greater area we think of Phoenix is not as populated as we think it is, but Nielsen actually considers a larger radius ... and we fail the test, dropping to No. 14 in market size. They consider us the "Phoenix/Prescott" demographic. Why Prescott? Got me. Why not Casa Grande? They get Phoenix news. Why not Maricopa and Florence? They're essentially Phoenix suburbs anymore.
So in metro size were a less than 50,000 behind the Bay, but somehow we're 700,000 behind the Bay in television households. It gets even better ... because some Bay Area networks have the nerve to broadcast into Sacramento, they get to add the Sac/Modesto/Stockton demographic to their list. When bowl games consider which college football teams to invite, Cal gets to boast 3.8 million TV households, virtually making it the third largest market in the country, 400K more than Chicago. Right. That's realistic.
So our metro area has 4 million people but we only have 1.66 million television households according to Nielsen. House is that bloody possible? Cable/satellite penetration is at 88 percent, and that's not measured by TV households! Think about how this affects us in small ways: If Phoenix were considered a Top 10 market (and I can't imagine how it can't be), all media outlets could charge a Top 10 premium for national advertising. It means more money in the coffers to pay for better talent and more programming/time/space to provide us the kind of information a Top 10 city demands.
We all know this is bogus Nielson statistical BS. Who do you know who doesn't have a television? We play by statistics we know are blatantly wrong.
Here's another reality that us TV viewers should be keeping an eye on: In about 15 years Phoenix and Tucson metropoli are expected to converge to create one of the world's largest megametropoli in the world. We will be one singular market of over 10 million people. It would be, at current numbers, the third largest in the U.S., just ahead of Chicago.
Admittedly, we tend to pick and choose our numbers. For example, Phoenix is now the 5th largest city in the country, but the Phoenix metropolis ranks only 13th. How they arrive at the figure is baffling, considering Phoenix is surrounded by 8 incorporated areas with more than 100,000 people, and another 11 with 10,000 or more. Somehow we only arrive at a little more than 4 million people, just a few subdivisions behind the Bay, and a few hundred thousand behind Boston and Detroit.
OK, so in reality the greater area we think of Phoenix is not as populated as we think it is, but Nielsen actually considers a larger radius ... and we fail the test, dropping to No. 14 in market size. They consider us the "Phoenix/Prescott" demographic. Why Prescott? Got me. Why not Casa Grande? They get Phoenix news. Why not Maricopa and Florence? They're essentially Phoenix suburbs anymore.
So in metro size were a less than 50,000 behind the Bay, but somehow we're 700,000 behind the Bay in television households. It gets even better ... because some Bay Area networks have the nerve to broadcast into Sacramento, they get to add the Sac/Modesto/Stockton demographic to their list. When bowl games consider which college football teams to invite, Cal gets to boast 3.8 million TV households, virtually making it the third largest market in the country, 400K more than Chicago. Right. That's realistic.
So our metro area has 4 million people but we only have 1.66 million television households according to Nielsen. House is that bloody possible? Cable/satellite penetration is at 88 percent, and that's not measured by TV households! Think about how this affects us in small ways: If Phoenix were considered a Top 10 market (and I can't imagine how it can't be), all media outlets could charge a Top 10 premium for national advertising. It means more money in the coffers to pay for better talent and more programming/time/space to provide us the kind of information a Top 10 city demands.
We all know this is bogus Nielson statistical BS. Who do you know who doesn't have a television? We play by statistics we know are blatantly wrong.
Here's another reality that us TV viewers should be keeping an eye on: In about 15 years Phoenix and Tucson metropoli are expected to converge to create one of the world's largest megametropoli in the world. We will be one singular market of over 10 million people. It would be, at current numbers, the third largest in the U.S., just ahead of Chicago.
