Get ready for the new ratings system…
The Kansas City Star’s Aaron Barnhart writes about the new ratings system. Longtime readers know I’ve been blogging on this developing story the best I can for the past year but Barnhart distills down what’s going to happen into its most important parts. Which qualifies it for must read status for neophytes not connected to the industry…(hat tip to TVbytheNumbers.com for emailing me the link)
The formal name for the new measuring-stick is the “live-plus-three-day commercial rating,” and it departs from the current ratings in two ways:
•It will measure, minute-by-minute, viewership for the commercial breaks, as opposed to the entire program. Networks have agreed to transmit an audio code (you won’t hear it) whenever there is a break. This tone will signal to the electronic meters used by Nielsen that the next 60 seconds are to count toward the commercial rating.
•It will measure all viewing of a particular program over a three-day span, beginning with the live broadcast time. The live-plus-three rating thus becomes the first widely accepted benchmark in American TV to acknowledge the growing use of digital video recorders.
Read the whole thing. Because the ratings they are a changing…
“Networks have agreed to transmit an audio code (you won’t hear it) whenever there is a break.”
Ooooh, I don’t like this. I’ve used these tones on a regular basis for the past year (to differentiate ‘local’ breaks and ‘national’ breaks), and let me tell you, they are nothing if not temperamental. Sometimes they go out… sometimes they don’t… sometimes they go out incorrectly… and sometimes they’re not received even though they’ve gone out.
There is a lot of opportunity for these things to get screwed up… not including pure dishonesty which will send the tones out during a segment, instead of the break, artificially inflating ratings.
Do not like this idea at all.
Comment by ImNotBlue — September 9, 2007 @ 8:49 am
I guess this will help MSNBC spin their ratings a little more by claiming KO beat O’Reilly for 2 seconds during a broadcast.
Comment by mlong — September 9, 2007 @ 9:41 am
Pretty soon, we’ll be to the point that the only cable ratings that will be counted at 8 p.m. ET will be whatever is being watched at Keith’s mom’s house.
Comment by Missy — September 9, 2007 @ 9:51 am
Pretty soon, we’ll be to the point that the only cable ratings that will be counted at 8 p.m. ET will be whatever is being watched at Keith’s mom’s house.
Comment by Missy — September 9, 2007 @ 9:51 am
O’Reilly will still win.
Comment by ImNotBlue — September 9, 2007 @ 10:00 am
so will icn continue to report the numbers using the old system to satisfy the crazy’s that can’t stand it when whoever beats whoever? what happened to the industry standard? i think tvn is right in reporting the numbers he does since those numbers he posts are actually correct too..only adds another group who watches the program later when it’s convienient for then. but of course the fnc crazies here hate tvn’s number because it doesn’t make their heros look as good.
Comment by Me — September 9, 2007 @ 10:01 am
Who the hell watches a news show 3 days later?
Comment by Alison — September 9, 2007 @ 10:25 am
Missy,
A good one!
Comment by Cella — September 9, 2007 @ 11:19 am
That’s EXACTLY my question Alison…I mean honestly, I don’t even watch a news program if it isn’t live (i.e. 1am airings of AC360…from the same day!).
Comment by Anonymous — September 9, 2007 @ 12:07 pm
Ratings definitely are changing, but I think Nielsen’s implementation and the markets uptake is still pretty uneven.
On Nielsen’s press site, they show Live, Live+SD [same day], and Live+7 ratings for most, but not all, categories. There are no Live+3 numbers there. At this point, I assume the LIve+3 are meant mainly for advertisers, but I’m not sure.
Comment by Bill G — September 9, 2007 @ 1:08 pm
Alison, this what Nielsen will begin to use for all shows in terms of setting a standard around ad buys/sells. I’m almost certain that Nielsen will also continue to provide overnight ratings (LIVE) and the more filtered (Live + Same Day DVR). My sense is that Live +3 will replace the current Live+7. I doubt we will see the minute by minute data generally available.
As for MSNBC using spin, we’ll see. But c’mon, if Katie Couric is an abysmal failure with routinely bigger numbers than O’Reilly and Oberman COMBINED, it’s not even significant enough to care about the spin the networks put on it!
Comment by Robert Seidman — September 9, 2007 @ 1:31 pm
It’s old news by then. Unless you’re an obsessed fan of a certain news personality, what’s the point? And the idea that anyone sits through the commercials when they do record something on DVR/TIVO? Who the heck are the networks trying to kid? Okay, alright, the advertisers! But still. Just how stupid are these network execs and the advertising agencies to truly believe that someone is going to watch a news show that is 3 days old and sit through all the commercials when they do? Entertainment shows, yes, I agree people do watch those and sometimes don’t watch them for months later (I’m a prime example) but come on–I certainly don’t watch the commercials when I do and I’m sure I’m not alone either!
Comment by Alison — September 9, 2007 @ 1:52 pm
How soon before O’Reilly does a “Talking Point” on how Nielsen is just another tool of all those “far left smear sites”?…..Of course, then back to the top issues facing America today: illegal alien sexual predators and missing girls.
Comment by Dmuse — September 9, 2007 @ 2:42 pm
so will icn continue to report the numbers using the old system to satisfy the crazy’s that can’t stand it when whoever beats whoever? what happened to the industry standard?
This is a fair question (though it was asked just to give me crap) and I’ll answer it.
The answer is not everyone is using Live+SD ratings. More importantly not everyone is charging advertisers based on Live+SD ratings. But things are changing and changing fast.
Here are the results of a member survey from the Assocation of National Advertisers from early in 2007 where they asked what form of ratings they wanted. (this info came from a March 13, 2007 MediaDailyNews article by Joe Mandese)
“Live” Only - 31%
“Live” Plus Same Day - 28%
“Live” Plus One Day - 9%
“Live” Plus Two Days - 7%
“Live” Plus Three Days - 3%
“Live” Plus Four Days - 2%
“Live” Plus Five Days - 2%
“Live” Plus Six Days - 0%
“Live” Plus Seven Days - 16%
Don’t Know - 2%
As you can see, though Live won the biggest percentage, if you look at simply Live vs. Not Live, advertisers overwhemingly are looking towards some form of time shifted data.
What’s going on with the networks is similar. Some have moved to time shifted ratings and sell by that. Some have not. I expect all to be doing it within a year or less because everyone’s numbers have gone up with Live+SD (though the gaps between programs in the same timeslot are not the same).
So as long as I get Live data, I will continue to post Live data as long as advertisements are being sold based on Live data. And that answers your question…which you weren’t really expecting since you were just looking for an opportunity to give me crap…
BTW, there’s a lot more going on with regards to the ratings and cable news than you know or understand. I’m looking into this now and hope to write up some sort of educational entry at some point.
Comment by Spud — September 9, 2007 @ 4:51 pm
Spud, sounds like a good idea, esp. since the majority voted to do so. And Alison explains the rationale for doing so perfectly - who wants to watch a news program even one day later, and why would advertisers appeal to people using DVR/Tivo, thereby passing their commercials?
Comment by Missy — September 9, 2007 @ 9:28 pm
I can only go by personal experience. I use a DVR to timeshift cable news. I have to to do this blog. But usually after 24 hours I’ve run through them. That said I do speed through commercials but even at the fastest speed I can spot advertisements I haven’t seen before. And sometimes I stop and go back and watch.
Comment by Spud — September 9, 2007 @ 10:48 pm