August 31 - September 4, 2009

[Cyberologist]

Industry leaders announce new ratings system

UPDATED: The parent companies of the major broadcast networks, along with several media buying agencies and advertisers announced Thursday the creation of a new TV ratings measurement organization: The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM).

I don't understand does this mean there will be a new system for rating Soaps now??

or they are looking into alternative methods in the 21st century of high technology

http://www.thrfeed.com/2009/09/industry-titans-launch-new-ratings-measurement-system.html

[Ann_SS]

From that article, it seems that networks and other media outlets are trying to get around Neilsen. It is an interesting concept. I can't see their corporate advertisers going for it. How can corporations justify making decisions about their huge advertising budgets based on numbers generated by a company owned and run by the network? What guarantee do they have that CIMM hasn't tweaked the sampling methods to give NBC's shows a nudge upwards? CIMM's numbers would have to be close to Nielsen's to be considered valid and if this is the case, then what is the point of CIMM?

[brwnsugar33]

I don't know what the point is to all but I think that all networks really need a boost in the ratings to show the advertisers that they are not failing as bad as they are with the Nielson's ratings system.

[JackPeyton]

because the own it they get pretty much all of the profit from it. if they put in say 80,000 and get 100,000 in return yes its only a 20,000 profit, but its still a profit.

cbs pretty much pays a fee to air gl, say only 40,000, well if they only get that back or make a little bit off of it its not worth it because they can pull it, put ona show they own that costs them 20,000 to make and take in all the profit.

it really is like renting a place or owning a place. when you rent, you get nothing except a place to live. when you own it, yes you shell out the cash but you are buying the house.

[marceline]

With all due respect, any new measurement system should be focused on being more accurate that Nielsen, not on giving a boost to anyone or anything. I keep seeing people say that if there were a better system advertisers would see how many people are watching soaps in online. They'd also see how many people are watching Dexter, True Blood and Battlestar Galactica as well as reruns of L&O, CSI and ER. Who's to say that soaps would fare any better with a "more accurate" ratings system? Better data might very well prove that the current soaps are long past their sell-by date.

[brwnsugar33]

Well, I really don't know what the difference between the two systems and right now I don't much care because if these show started telling better stories then viewers would stick around to watch them. If they get this system working better than Nielson's I am all for it but until then Nielson's is all we have to go on.

[marceline]

I agree. Nielsen works well enough for primetime and cable shows. Only the soap audience seems to believe there's some great shadow viewership out there.

[rhinohide]

Not necessarily. It could easily compliment the existing ratings system. If you look at the list of companies involved with the coalition they aren't all broadcasters and in the first paragraph the article says the coalition includes media buyers, which are actually the companies Nielsen is designed to benefit primarily. The core purpose of Nielsen data is to assign value to commercial air time (ie. establish what can be charged for a 30 sec. spot on a given show) based on the number of people the advertising will reach. So if the broadcasters actually want some kind of data to help them evaluate their audience for their own purposes, it makes sense for them to develop a system specifically designed for that. For example, Nielsen also used to (and may still) have a system to measure sales of consumer goods through supermarkets. It was based on a sampling procedure similar to the ratings system but it used UPC scanner data. There was also a company called MAJERS that measured warehouse inventory pulls. Additionally, a consumer products manufacturer would have their own sales data that measured what they shipped from their production facilities to the warehouse. These three different types of data basically all measured sales, but at different points in the distribution system, and they complimented each other, so a consumer products manufacturer would utilize all three types of sales data in different ways and to evaluate different things.

[Ann_SS]

If nothing else, CIMM should provide jobs to statisticians and market researchers. I should apply.

[Soapsuds]

Whistles and waits for Toups to post the full ratings.

[dragonflies]

Will the ratings be posted tomorrow cause of the holiday?

I don't see the move to LA doing much for AMC. Crap writing on the East Coast is still crap writing on the West Coast. AMC will be lucky if it gets another year after the move.

I actually think we'll all be surprised and AMC will be cancelled long before OLTL is.

[Southofnowhere]

AMC may get a bump the first week or of the move but i think that'll be it.

IF someone like Susan , DC , TK leave their final week would get a nice bump.

[Soapsuds]

Still waiting and tapping fingers on desk.

[winterguy125]

Even though it only went up 1000 viewers for ATWT still a increase which is the fourth week in a row, hopefully it continues, it should be up for the last week seeing as it was a 3 day week.

[Ann_SS]

Yikes, those 18 to 49 women demos are a nightmare.