June 22-26, 2009

[Jess]

It is not part of basic or extended basic on my cable. You can buy it as part of an entertainment tier. The cost for additional tiers isn't too high, but there is nothing on the tier that I watch so it certainly is not worth even a small amount of money. I think additional tiers run something like $4 a month.

So Marceline, what shows did well this week, and which took a dump? It doesn't look like ratings are going to be posted anytime soon.

[Jess]

I'm curious why that is -- why the shows are so bad now. I stopped watching all soaps for a while and then tuned back into Y&R. I was off work much of this week and tuned into more of them while I was cleaning house or just putting around. I don't know if I had not watched in so long that I had forgotten how bad soaps were, or if they truly are terrible now. I really thought all of the were bad.

[rhinohide]

I don't know about any of them except for OLTL, and IMO it's just truly terrible. I am guessing the same is true of all of them. You check the message boards and there's very little substantive discussion. Nothing on the shows actually makes me think about the characters and why they behave the way they do or what they will do next. Instead I always question why the writers wrote that and what the point was. Something's very wrong when I'm constantly seeing the writing and the acting instead of being immersed in the stories and characters.

[Cyberologist]

Thank you and I agree and I can even go a half step farther in my personal belief that TV watching is declining. At least on ABC they were having concerns re: primetime viewership, not sure if this is still true but there is so much out here....TV for the most part I don't find as entertaining as I once did. I watched TV endlessly for decades and I think I've just burned out from it...

I read a whole lot more now and find it equally as entertaining and will read before I watch a TV show.

rhinohide

EXCELLENT OBSERVATION!! I couldn't quite put it as succintly as you just did because I didn't quite know what it is but that's what I do too. Instead of focusing on the "story being told" I'm into other things...because the story isn't good overall...I get good scenes here and there but its like the "effort" isn't being put on what the story (storyline is about) and maybe that should be more of an emphasis, my thing is good stories. That comes first with me, even if I don't like the characters, or the wardrobe / setting wasn't quite right I can forgive a lot of things for good storytelling overall.

[rhinohide]

It's pretty simple really. Nielsen is a sampling of viewer households. So Nielsen ratings relation to to actual viewership is similar to that of the exit polls following the election to the tally of the final vote. And Nielsen is designed primarily for the benefit of the advertisers to assign value to particular media placement. Other entities may use it for their own purposes, but I don't think it's really adaptable in that way. I suspect that there are other measures they use as well.

Just as Nielsen also measures store sales (through the UPC bar coding), it's just a sampling of product sales in various supermarkets. Manufacturers of course have their own sales figures, but since most products are warehouse delivered, there's a gap in information between what's delivered to the warehouse and what is actually pulled through by the consumer so the figures don't match up.

I'm sure ABC uses other research in addition to Nielsen to measure viewership. I guess my point is, Nielsen isn't the determination of success or failure for the networks, but it does determine what they can charge for advertising.

[Jeff]

Sorry if this has been covered already, but are the ratings delayed because of the July 4th holiday- even though it's on a Saturday?

[rhinohide]

I don't think it's been covered, so I don't think anyone knows. Maybe Toups went away for the holiday weekend. Lots of people had today as a holiday.

[brwnsugar33]

Toups, are we going to get the ratings today?

[Carolyn1980]

Toups was posting over on the Soapzone Community Board last night, so at least last night, he wasn't on vacation.

As for SN's ratings....once again, the comparisons I'm making are apples to apples for the cable nets. Despite SoapNet not being available on some cable systems without paying for a higher tier, it does better among women 18-49 than most of those offered on the basic tier.

[dragonflies]

My understanding is Soapnet and ABC have the same advertisers for the ABC soaps. So they don't really profit much from the shows on Soapnet. I remember Jacob Young once telling people NOT to watch on Soapnet, that what counts is watching it on ABC

Where I live it's on the basic cable and part of the digital package, it's the ONLY channel they do that with

[chyti]

It's not part of basic cable for me either but it's cheap enough to get the next tier that its worth it.

I can't even imagine soapnet out performing USA and TNT not with shows like the closer and leverage two of my favorite show and which I know for a fact has at least over 2 mil viewers.

[Carolyn1980]

You're talking about individual shows. I'm talking about 8-11 primetime, women 18-49, for an entire quarter.

[SteveFrame]

Jacob Young & those associated with the show are definitely going to push that. Whether AMC stays or is cancelled solely depends on what is on ABC and that's it.

IF ABC cancels it due to lack of advertising it is highly doubtful that SoapNet would pick it up. If they did it would be even more low budget than it is now and a lot of actors would be gone.

People can complain about the Nielsen's not counting DVR viewers or Internet viewers and such, but in truth it boils down to what Jacob Young is saying - watch it live - that is what counts in the long run.

Yes soaps are reaching others on the Internet and through DVR but again with the DVR thing how many people watch the advertisements, and that is the reason the advertisers won't move away from putting so much importance on live viewing. How many times ahve we read on message boards that someone says well I only watched this scene or that scene and the rest I fast forwarded through. Well if advertisers don't think you are watching the show in its enterity then why would they think that you are not fast forwarding through their advertisements.

As that article I posted last week pointed out - advertisers this year are looking for where is the best place to spend their money this year and that live viewing rating is more important to them than ever. They have got to put it into shows that have the most guarantee of their show being seen.

Internet viewing is the wave of the future and something with the streaming is where we will see it go where no one can fast forward through anything. You will be forced to watch the whole show or none at all.

And again if it is true as research has shown that the largest portion of viewers for soaps are low income then it is going to be very likely that most of them don't even have the Internet or a computer. So how many viewers are going to be lost for soaps when that happens.

And as far as the switch having a lot to do with ratings. I am not sure it did. I know that the Nielsen company around here made calls to all their clients months ago to make sure they were ready for the switch. I have a feeling that every area did the same.

[chyti]

This is interesting news although I have no idea what it means.

Where are you getting your info I would like to see it for myself, I just find it hard to believe that soapnet is out performing the top basic cable stations like USA and TNT

[Rosey]

maceline do you know if Y&R went down??