![That’s a pretty startling fact if it’s true.
Unrelated: Alison Brie FTW, always.
Fact: .0217 Of The American Population Determines What Tv Shows We WatchYesterday, in discussing ABC’s decision to release a spoiler-heavy 10-minute preview of the upcoming third season of “Cougar Town,” television critic Ryan McGee asked showrunner, Bill Lawrence, directly what the […]
Source: WarmingGlow
[follow-up from commenter awirish on how it all works]:
There’s actually a lot of science that goes into how this is put together. And actually, it’s not 25k out of the entire U.S. It’s 25k in the top 30 markets or so. That’s what make up their national ratings. Local ratings are still collected in some markets by paper diaries where people write in what they watch every 15 minutes for a few weeks and mail them back in.
The national data is collected via a box that automatically collects what you’re watching. And it does actually give you credit for what you watch on your DVR, so long as you do it within 3 days of watching. Most entertainment programming (sports is a little different), is bought by advertisers on what’s called a C3 rating. Commecials have a different audio code than a program itself, and the machine registers that. When you skip through a commerical on your DVR, that audio code doesn’t register, and the meter gives no credit. An advertiser isn’t actually buying the audience of a program, it’s buying the audience of the commericals within that program. If you’re a Nielsen household, the best thing you can do is not skip the commericals when you’re watching a program on tape – and make sure you do it within 3 days of the original airing.
It’ all rolls up. Advertisers typically buy what’s called a GRP – Gross Ratings Point. That’s essentially, the reach of a program factoring in Frequency. Reach x Frequency = GRP. For example, if an advertiser goes to ABC and says I want to buy 3 GRPs in Cougartown and the ABC says, we predict that will bring a rating of 1, that means that we, ABC, has to air your ad 3 times in Cougartown, since a ratings point equals one percent of the population.
If the ratings come in and they average only a .5 instead of a 1, then the advertiser’s buy only comes in at 1.5 GRPs, not 3, meaning the network has to give more commercial time to the advertiser to make good on the promise.
And that’s how shows get cancelled. If a network sees that a show does not get enough of an audience to pay off the inventory that it’s sold, it has to make up for airtime elsewhere, and cuts its losses.
Advertisers will typically buy specific demographics – A18-49 is typically bought – advertisers really could care less about reaching anyone over the age of 55 in reality, unless it’s drugs or politics](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lz34kiOPdY1qd956mo1_500.jpg)
That’s a pretty startling fact if it’s true.
Unrelated: Alison Brie FTW, always.
Fact: .0217 Of The American Population Determines What Tv Shows We Watch
Yesterday, in discussing ABC’s decision to release a spoiler-heavy 10-minute preview of the upcoming third season of “Cougar Town,” television critic Ryan McGee asked showrunner, Bill Lawrence, directly what the […]
Source: WarmingGlow
[follow-up from commenter awirish on how it all works]:
There’s actually a lot of science that goes into how this is put together. And actually, it’s not 25k out of the entire U.S. It’s 25k in the top 30 markets or so. That’s what make up their national ratings. Local ratings are still collected in some markets by paper diaries where people write in what they watch every 15 minutes for a few weeks and mail them back in.
The national data is collected via a box that automatically collects what you’re watching. And it does actually give you credit for what you watch on your DVR, so long as you do it within 3 days of watching. Most entertainment programming (sports is a little different), is bought by advertisers on what’s called a C3 rating. Commecials have a different audio code than a program itself, and the machine registers that. When you skip through a commerical on your DVR, that audio code doesn’t register, and the meter gives no credit. An advertiser isn’t actually buying the audience of a program, it’s buying the audience of the commericals within that program. If you’re a Nielsen household, the best thing you can do is not skip the commericals when you’re watching a program on tape – and make sure you do it within 3 days of the original airing.
It’ all rolls up. Advertisers typically buy what’s called a GRP – Gross Ratings Point. That’s essentially, the reach of a program factoring in Frequency. Reach x Frequency = GRP. For example, if an advertiser goes to ABC and says I want to buy 3 GRPs in Cougartown and the ABC says, we predict that will bring a rating of 1, that means that we, ABC, has to air your ad 3 times in Cougartown, since a ratings point equals one percent of the population.
If the ratings come in and they average only a .5 instead of a 1, then the advertiser’s buy only comes in at 1.5 GRPs, not 3, meaning the network has to give more commercial time to the advertiser to make good on the promise.
And that’s how shows get cancelled. If a network sees that a show does not get enough of an audience to pay off the inventory that it’s sold, it has to make up for airtime elsewhere, and cuts its losses.
Advertisers will typically buy specific demographics – A18-49 is typically bought – advertisers really could care less about reaching anyone over the age of 55 in reality, unless it’s drugs or politics
Just strange and wonderful things (usually simultaneously strange and wonderful) I find on the internet.
Probably some stuff I create too.
