DOOL/ DESPERATION: Days of Our Lives ratings plummet to new ALL-TIME LOW!!!!!!!!
Donna L. Bridges
<csNua.11285$%_3.60...@newssrv26.news.prodigy.com>, "Jerry"
<jde...@ameritech.net> wrote:
> A lot of people are talking about those numbers as if they have the same
> meaning today as they had 20 years ago. I wonder if a lower number might
> not represent many more people today than it did back then. Heard recently
> that the average home today has three TVs and with TIVO and vcrs people are
> probably watching much more than the census people are aware of. I know
> someone who has five TVs and five VCRs so they can record certain programs
> and have just that one program on a tape. Does that 2.7 number represent
> only the people who watch a show at the actual time the show is on?
The number represented by *1* is altered somewhat every season, as
needed. They do a variety of different kinds of measurement - both
diaried & electronic, for individuals & for households. Time shifters,
as they call anyone who tapes or Tivos, etc., are counted but that
number doesn't get added in the same way as real-timers. But, the
Nielsens are broken & have been for some time in any meaningful terms
of who & how many are actually watchers, fans, ... But, that's not
their purpose & we aren't their customers. The advertisers are. And,
they set the value of ad time for each show. And, the ratings are less
effective for daytime soaps than for anything else. Soaps are on 5
days a week, every week, with no reruns and soaps are much more prone
to have markets not show a soap and/or not show it at the timeslot
where it competes nationally. Improving the system comes up often &
competitors come up with supposedly better ideas & methods but until
they all band together & insist on changes it's unlikely to happen.
And, that kind of unity is even more improbable. The current broken
system regularly lets each network claim something good - CBS in HHs,
ABC in demos, NBC in even younger demos.
Besides the idea that a system not very well-tuned to reality made up
of approximately 5500 households as a predictor of who is watching
what, how likely is it to be accurate?
--
DonnaB %^>
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential
is invisible to the eye." - Antoine de Saint-Exupery (1900-1944)