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You know what makes me mad is that the cater to everyone who is 49 and younger, what about older people we should count in fact there is more senior citizens that watch tv then the younger generation 👿
[adrotate group="5"]A little musing about TV business and ratings from me again … (well, my interest for TV, film, fandoms goes beyond entertainment, social scientist talking, so, please bare with me)
To me it looks like even the authors on Huffingtonpost are getting only part of the point. How many people watch a show, how dedicated they are is not the main thing but what brings revenue and profit. The rating-system is only about measuring, getting numbers to predict if something is or will be profitable or not on TV. In question is not just the rating system but the whole TV business as we know it, and particular that is true for scripted TV shows.
How do TV companies make money? The big business, the big money for TV so far has been in advertising, meaning selling air time to other companies to advertise for their products. You can get somewhat different opinions on how important DVD sales are, but when looking at these numbers for The Simpsons, selling advertising is by far the bigger number, besides what is called merchandising (excluding DVD sales)… Now merchandising besides DVD sales is big business for some, but for many TV series it’s not bringing as much as for such shows as The Simpsons. For many popular procedural shows, mostly crime and medical dramas, the kind of merchandising a show like The Simpsons can do, is not possible. I mean, for example doubt that a figure set of CSI characters would sell that well.
For live event shows (sport events, show events like Amazing Race, American Idol, reality shows) the big money is still in advertising, what makes them TV companies’ darlings. Let’s simply say, revenue for live event shows is more predictable and clear, it’s still mostly advertising and maybe some merchandising. Measuring viewer numbers (and it’s not so hard to include internet live-stream viewers in these numbers) and buzz on social media sites is a rather good indicator for the success of these kind of shows. The old measurements and TV business models work still quite fine in this sector.
With scripted TV series things are a tad more complicate by now, there is a mix of things bringing revenue, and the mix can be quite different for different series. While one show might bring a little less in advertising revenue during first run, it might be a big selling hit in syndication, national or international, or it could do even better in DVD sales, or as competition to DVD sales nowadays online streaming and downloading (Hulu, Netflix, Itunes). Predicting that wasn’t easy before the social media boom, first run ratings aren’t always a good measure to predict it. Social media might now help with numbers for this, but so far it is rather unresearched how reliable any numbers drawn from social media buzz will be, can be, if they can tell more about potential for DVD sales, online streaming/downloads and merchandising than good old Nielsen Rating did.
Not to mention, profit begins only when your revenue is (on the long run) higher than the costs for production. So shows with small budgets can even with small audience and smaller sales make some money, while for big budget shows it has to be big audience, big sale. Remember, all things are relative.
Nielsen are changing their system, they are already running tests in collaboration with Twitter, and from Fall 2013 numbers for the “Nielsen Twitter TV Rating” will be available. It’s though only an enhancement of the classical TV viewer ratings, because it still is focused on live airing.
Numbers for DVD sales, online streaming and download are available, but there is no simple way to integrate it into the Nielsen Rating, TV ratings, quite simple because of different time frames – but that doesn’t mean those numbers aren’t looked at by those making decisions about picking up, reneweing or cancelling TV shows. Just because some TV critics and fandoms still make such a buzz about Nielsen Ratings it’s not like business takes only those ratings and only rating numbers into account.
TV business is changing, and we might see scripted TV shows go a very different way in the future than live TV events. One interesting question will be, if internet based series will be able to make enough revenue for example to attract more producers to this possibility and one day make classic TV a second choice as distribution channel for audio-visual fictional story telling of whatever kind. Will for example pay-per-view or video-on-demand be able to bring the money to refinance production costs and then even bring in profit? So far classical TV (broadcast and cable) is still bringing in the bigger deal, and that still means mostly revenue based on advertising, but the share of other distribution channels is increasing.
Nielsen TV Ratings are far from outdated for measuring impact on TV, but the future for the kind of story telling scripted TV series and TV movies present might be not on TV anymore.
@HappyEndings wrote:
You know what makes me mad is that the cater to everyone who is 49 and younger, what about older people we should count in fact there is more senior citizens that watch tv then the younger generation 👿
Well, marketing business has as much to do with myth as with numbers, and sometimes one can wonder if the myths are not more important. There is the idea, that younger people are more impressible for advertising, with age we become more stuck in habits and less open to change and buy new stuff 😉 So senior citizens might watch even more TV but they are still seen as less worth for selling advertising. The thing in TV business is not the cheer number here but what merit whoever is giving the money expect it to have.
There is hope, that even that might change though. see here
Can’t point it out often enough: the media buzz about Nielsen TV Ratings doesn’t equal (anymore) how business people look at the numbers. And: the free, public available numbers we have here are just a fraction of what Nielsen is putting together.
I know I won’t be able to talk anyone here ever out of paying attention to these public ratings numbers. Not saying they indicate nothing, only that what they mean is often overrated in many places.
So grab your towl, drink a cup of Earl Grey and … Don’t Panic! 😎
¯\_(?????? ?)_/¯
Nielsen are changing their system, they are already running tests in collaboration with Twitter, and from Fall 2013 numbers for the “Nielsen Twitter TV Rating” will be available. It’s though only an enhancement of the classical TV viewer ratings, because it still is focused on live airing.
So here’s my question. Every Monday I wait for tvbythenumbers to put out the overnight’s for ONCE to post here. Once Nielsen changes over to this new model, which (in my opinion) finally includes stuff like Twitter, how will this change what I view for the overnights? Am I going to get to different sets of ratings: Twitter and non-Twitter?
Also, I’m not sure if older generations watch “more” TV than the younger generations. I’m 26 and I can assure you that my generation watches an unholy amount of TV and the TV that is the most successful either in ratings or in cult following are the ones watched by the 18-50 yr olds (everything from the teenage show Pretty Little Liars, which never fails to trend on Twitter the night it airs, to British cult sci-fi Doctor Who, even to Once). My generation and the ones below me watch a crazy amount of TV and we also talk about it more and are more likely to purchase the merch, which is why Nielsen is “changing” the way it does things (change is in quotations b/c it sounds like’s only changing every so slightly. It’s not that the over 50s don’t count but I think it’s a stretch to say they watch more TV.) But Myril is right, it’s about money and it’s about advertisement. My mom and I may watch the same amount (hours) of TV every day but we watch radically different things. She’s content with the cooking channel and watches very little network TV, but I watch mostly network TV which is where advertisers go to promote their goods. Most TV shows are designed to sell to the 18-50 age group, but again that’s the money/advertising issue.
So grab your towl, drink a cup of Earl Grey and … Don’t Panic! 😎
I always know where my towel is. Ford would be very disappointed in me if I didn’t.
Thanks for the overview.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"@RumplesGirl wrote:
Nielsen are changing their system, they are already running tests in collaboration with Twitter, and from Fall 2013 numbers for the “Nielsen Twitter TV Rating” will be available. It’s though only an enhancement of the classical TV viewer ratings, because it still is focused on live airing.
So here’s my question. Every Monday I wait for tvbythenumbers to put out the overnight’s for ONCE to post here. Once Nielsen changes over to this new model, which (in my opinion) finally includes stuff like Twitter, how will this change what I view for the overnights? Am I going to get to different sets of ratings: Twitter and non-Twitter?
The data will not be merged. You get the traditional set of numbers (viewers, percent, rating) and a second set of numbers for Twitter. So, yeah, bit misunderstanding to say, they change their system, they expand it. And as it is already with the present media about the numbers, the focus will still be on overnight ratings, live views. Nielsen quite sure will offer more data for money though. A study already proved, there is correlation between TV Ratings and Twitter chatter (what a surprise.not), but that is not the real interesting question about Twitter numbers. More interesting would be, if Twitter numbers correlate with other distribution ways like online streaming, but to see that you need reliable Twitter numbers and reliable numbers about online streaming, with the latter being the bigger challenge.
This fall Nielsen as well will become more serious about collecting data about online streaming via computer, tablets, smartphone, although they might still struggle to do so for single tv shows, so we won’t get to see these numbers in the public normal TV ratings we get. While TV companies have a huge interest to see how which show does on which day and at which time of day, for a third party streaming provider like Netflix such data might be something they have less interest in, and Nielsen would need their cooperation to collect more detailed numbers. Good article about it. Nielsen just started to track online streaming of some of the TV companies, those numbers though won’t be visible in the normal TV rating numbers, and guess will be hardly at all at this point accessable for average people like us, aka won’t be public. see article
Concerning demographics and TV: Numbers show younger people are not the ones spending most time with watching TV. Surprise 😉 More so, the Baby Boomers are simply getting older, and they are the big number in audience, there are just more of them. It might look differently, because younger people watching TV are more visible, more talkative and sociable about it. People age 55 and older so far were seldom the target group for advertising though, so not interesting for TV ratings. Statistics are only important when they matter, otherwise they are just numbers.
Okay, this soon will turn into an online course about TV ratings and future of scripted TV shows 😆
¯\_(?????? ?)_/¯
@obisgirl wrote:
It would be nice if Nielsen just died or become reinvented — actually death is better — but it’s going to take a long time for that company to catch up to people’s online/other media viewing habits. but good article.
NIELSEN RATINGS is suppose to be coming out with a new rating system next fall… been hearing about it off and on for a couple of months.
Nonnie
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.http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/cancelled-or-renewed-abc-tv-shows-status-28169/comment-page-1/
http://tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/once-upon-a-time-season-three-28317/
ratings cancelled or renewal
http://hollywoodlife.com/2013/05/11/worst-moms-tv-mothers-day-2013-jenelle-evans-teen-mom/
MOTHER DAY
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.Disappointing that the Season finale couldn’t get a nice boost. I mean really, it’s the Season FINALE and even included a sneak peek at SHIELD! The finale got a 2.2 and 7.22 total viewers. It might get adjusted in a few days, and DVR numbers will definitely be greater. Still, I expected better: http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/05/13/tv-ratings-sunday-revenge-finale-dips-once-flat-cleveland-slides-celebrity-apprentice-hits-low/182416/
@MatthewPaul wrote:
Disappointing that the Season finale couldn’t get a nice boost. I mean really, it’s the Season FINALE and even included a sneak peek at SHIELD! The finale got a 2.2 and 7.22 total viewers. It might get adjusted in a few days, and DVR numbers will definitely be greater. Still, I expected better: http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/2013/05/13/tv-ratings-sunday-revenge-finale-dips-once-flat-cleveland-slides-celebrity-apprentice-hits-low/182416/
As did I. I expected at least a 2.3 ratings share. I know we’re safe for S3, but I hope they take a good hard look at what didn’t work storytelling wise. As for scheduling, I know it was the same for S1 but S1 was far less complicated than S2 and that hurt with all the hiatuses. So I hope they give us 11 all new episodes with no repeats leading up to winter, break for winter/Olympics then come back in the spring with 11 new episodes.
"He was a lot of things to me" "The only conclusion was love"@RumplesGirl wrote:
As did I. I expected at least a 2.3 ratings share. I know we’re safe for S3, but I hope they take a good hard look at what didn’t work storytelling wise. As for scheduling, I know it was the same for S1 but S1 was far less complicated than S2 and that hurt with all the hiatuses. So I hope they give us 11 all new episodes with no repeats leading up to winter, break for winter/Olympics then come back in the spring with 11 new episodes.
Yep, and many of us think that the Wonderland spinoff will serve as a way to help with that by airing in between the two halves of Season 3. You can also blame Mother’s Day for the ratings, but at the same time the Season 1 finale did so much better.
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