March 22-26, 2010

[marceline]

Toups, maybe you should wait until tomorrow to post the ratings so people know they aren't a joke.

[Gina90]

april fool

[amcfanfor30]

Like several others have said, I'm enjoying AMC more than I have in years, but I don't like what I have been reading about the show's future direction: The resurrection of Fusion - the most ridiculous workplace on TV - the return of Kendall and the departure of David Canary (and I think, Julia Barr). I fear the show will revert to the Fusion-themed crapfest it had been 2005-2008. If that is the case, I wouldn't be surprised if the ratings drop to a 1.5 over the summer.

[DRW50]

Given that most of their scenes have been cut to ribbons, I doubt it.

[Eric83]

Kish is overrated. Their exit isn't going to make or break OLTL.

[DRW50]

I think if OLTL's ratings already weren't so low, then a complete junking of almost every minority on canvas, along with a smear campaign against the actors and blaming gays for ratings woes, would cause a drop. Since the ratings are already in the pits, it probably won't make a difference.

[fanOLTL]

Toups,

quick question. While at the grogercy store, I glanced at a recent issue of Soap Opera Digest. The ratings were much different. It had GH in last place with a 1.6 for the first week in March. The numbers and rankings were different. What gives?

[Eric83]

The ratings Toups posts includes Same Day DVR viewing.

Nice to know that GH is in last place live viewing though.

[Cyberologist]

Not sure if this is the right spot or if its already been posted if so I'll delete....

Industry News: Nielsen makes more changes to its ratings system!

Posted by timeaftertime at 04:44 PM on March 31, 2010

Word on the street according to Media Post Productions in a move by the Nielsen there are going to more changes to how they measure viewers and this one has a lot people conflicted. Here is are a few excerpts from the article:

In a move that has profound implications for the way advertisers and agencies plan and buy television, Nielsen Tuesday informed clients it will make some fundamental changes in the way it calculates its so-called "average audience" ratings - long the currency of the $80 billion TV advertising market place. Perhaps the most significant of the changes is that Nielsen will begin including duplicate viewing to all program telecasts in its average audience ratings, a move that could undermine one of the core tenants of Madison Avenue's media planning theory: unduplicated reach. Nielsen said it is making the moves, effective in December, to help prepare for other big changes in the way it factors television audience ratings, including the inclusion of so-called "extended screen" viewing of TV programs viewed online. While the absolute amount of duplicate viewing that currently takes place via the Internet and various devices such as digital video recorders and video-on-demand services, currently is small, it is expected to grow over time, and potentially could dilute the meaning of audience reach.

"Now it seems like Nielsen's telling us that we can hit a target more than once with the same bullet, so to speak," Seaman said, noting that the notion of unduplicated reach has been important for Madison Avenue, because it is one of the ways agencies and advertisers plan their advertising budgets to reach their target audiences most effectively, and with as little duplicated waste as possible.

"The impact is definitely pretty small," said Nielsen spokesman Gary Holmes. "The estimate is that it will increase viewing under 1%." The less than 1% figure, he said, is the amount Nielsen estimates the inclusion of duplicate viewing done via digital video recorders will have on the absolute size of average audience ratings. He said the impact of online viewing of TV programs currently is negligible, but acknowledged that it is expected to grow over time, as more of the TV industry embraces a "TV everywhere" mantra.

Nielsen will begin releasing including "evaluation data" for viewing of TV programs done online in September, and will deliver them by the end of the year."

How will this affect your soap viewing habits? Not much at all. Because including duplicated viewing online verses single views creates dishonest stats. It's more important to track unduplicated viewing because say I watch the same video 4 times that is four different views and adding those next 3 views to the overall stats makes it appear that so many different people viewed the video online. So they should have 2 stat categories:

Total Viewers (which includes duplicated) and

Total Undupilcated Viewers (which works best for advertisers). The latter of the two is only one that is important.

In other news the Nielsen's are moving ahead with a controversial plan to eliminate live-only local TV program ratings, that covers close to 70% of local U.S. television homes starting April 1st.

In another excerpt from a related article it is explained:

Now, TV advertisers and stations will only have overnight access to data for three different data streams -- live program-plus-same-day time-shifting of programming, live-plus-three-day time-shifting, and live-plus-seven-day shifting -- to account for their media buys.

Live-only data will still be available, but on a delayed basis.

For the better part of 50 years, advertisers have used live-only as their currency. In the last few years, Nielsen has added new streams of program data to account for time-shifting. But few, if any, advertisers made deals on these other metrics.

Two major media agency groups -- Starcom MediaVest Group Exchange (SMGX) and Group M -- protested loudly over the elimination of the live-only program ratings. They said it will result in an instant 7% viewership boost in local TV stations, as well as a potential increase in ad dollars.

One of the main reasons in dropping live-only was the issue of capacity; Nielsen can only feasibly maintain three streams of data, not four streams. But the decision wasn't just from Nielsen's viewpoint.

"We've heard it from both sides, that 'we cannot handle another stream of data,'" says Dave Thomas, president of global client services for The Nielsen Company. "I've also heard people say it's a red herring." He added that there was no consensus among media agency executives as to what changes should be made.

TV station groups pushed Nielsen for the change because its advertising deals do not account for time-shifted programming, which continues to grow.

What is time [!@#$%^&*] viewing?

Time shifting is the recording of programming to a storage medium to be viewed or listened to at a time more convenient to the consumer. Typically, this refers to TV programming but can also refer to radio shows via podcasts.

In cable television broadcasting, time shifting may also refer to the availability of network affiliates from different time zones, serving a similar function of making television programs available at multiple times throughout the day.

For daytime that could mean that the ratings get a boost by working to more hotly include DVR viewing. Also it means the numbers for viewing a daytime soap on Soapnet could also increase it's viewing. By how much? We don't know.

Advertisers though are not happy. If this increase viewership overall in a signifcant way than it means higher ad prices negotiated at the bargaining table my the networks.

http://timeaftertimeonlinedrama.webs.com/apps/blog/show/3311528-industry-news-nielsen-makes-more-changes-to-its-ratings-system-

[marceline]

You think?

ETA: Man. Look at those year-to-year drops. Was there something happening last year that had people home? A snowstorm or something?

[Toups]

My hand is over the panic button for DAYS, not about to push it yet, but those demos are bad!

[Eric83]

Damn I was hoping DAYS would continue to have year-to-year gains.

I hope these numbers pick back up.

Boo to GH being top ABC soap. It should be AMC.

[DRW50]

Once again Y&R underwhelms during a week that should have been big for them -- Adam's downfall continues, and the Ryder/Daisy "mystery" was about to be exposed.

So OLTL went up in total viewers, barely, but down elsewhere?

[Adam]

Oh dear... look that those bottom three.... not much separation.

[Mr. Vixen]

Glad to see GH go up....I know a lot of people hate it, but it has been pretty good of late.