About TV ratings

Started by Pas, February 17, 2009, 07:27:30 AM

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Pas

What is a good amount of viewers for a prime time TV show on one of the major networks ? I read somewhere that 15 million was quite good, is that so ?

I am wondering because I live in Quebec (6 million population) and here a show that is popular will have at least 1 million viewer. The most popular ones have 2 and our french version of American Idol has 2.5M

In relation to our population, this translates into a fucking lot of people.

Are TV ratings numbers reliable ? I was thinking that since people who answer the surveys must be tv-maniacs the numbers could be all wrong... anyway do you know anything I don't ?

Stefen

I have no idea how they judge ratings. Supposedly the only way you're able to tell what someone is watching is if they have a nielsen box, but I've never even met someone who has a nielsen box.

It seems a shoddy way to rate things.
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Kal

Each network has different aspirations for what "Good ratings" are. For instance, a Primetime show with less than 8 million viewers in network television is not good. The only network that has successful shows in the range of 3-6 million viewers is the CW.

In cable, major cable networks like TNT or USA need 2 million primetime viewers to have a successful show. HBO or Showtime on the other hand work differently, and can afford to have less than 1 million watch certain shows, not only because they have many encore presentations but because they make their money somewhere else.

So yes, your American Idol is watched by 1/3 of the population which is a lot for anybody standards. To give you an idea, the Superbowl had almost 100 million viewers and that is a little bit more of 1/3 ofthe population in the US, but that is a once a year event. American Idol averages 35 million in their best episodes.

Don't know if all that blabla answers your question or not :)

Pas

yes it does Kal, very informative. And it totally clears up my confusion. I was thinking : ''holy shit we watch way more TV than americans'' ... but no, because you guys have a ton of channels with a couple million viewers on each. We have only 4 french channels so here you go, people just all watch the same thing here whereas you are spread out on a lot of channels.

Still though, that nielsen box thing, I've never even heard of anyone having one, let alone knowing someone who does. I'm guessing it's just 3 old ladies.

JG

i actually read an article this morning about lost's ratings, which i thought was sort of interesting:

QuoteFOX is exploiting an overlap trick to inflate their numbers.  The trick is, they run their programs over which earns them an artificial share at the turn of the hour or half hour. ABC will soon be doing the same with LOST, and in fact already did to some degree with their claim that 20-million viewers tuned in for LOST's premiere, when the actual number of live viewers was somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 million.

Pas

Quote from: JG on February 17, 2009, 04:41:56 PM
i actually read an article this morning about lost's ratings, which i thought was sort of interesting:

QuoteFOX is exploiting an overlap trick to inflate their numbers.  The trick is, they run their programs over which earns them an artificial share at the turn of the hour or half hour. ABC will soon be doing the same with LOST, and in fact already did to some degree with their claim that 20-million viewers tuned in for LOST's premiere, when the actual number of live viewers was somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 million.

What does ''run their programs over'' mean ?

polkablues

It means they run the episodes about two minutes long so they cut into the following hour.
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Pas

Quote from: polkablues on February 17, 2009, 08:30:27 PM
It means they run the episodes about two minutes long so they cut into the following hour.

thanks that's what I had guessed... aren't they worried that the addition of all ratings will add up to more than country's population  :yabbse-undecided:

Kal

Quote from: Pas Rap on February 17, 2009, 08:43:51 PM
Quote from: polkablues on February 17, 2009, 08:30:27 PM
It means they run the episodes about two minutes long so they cut into the following hour.

thanks that's what I had guessed... aren't they worried that the addition of all ratings will add up to more than country's population  :yabbse-undecided:

whatever they can show to the advertisers will work if they can sell more ads... each network has their own version of ratings including who won the 18-49 demographic and so on... stupid, and outdated.