Quote:
Originally Posted by Destor
to the idea of *if* 18-49 matters it matters chiefly because the guys paying the bills value it. their position on the topic functions as a fiat currency. same with neilson as a whole. its doesnt represent what the market actually values (noted by the continuous diminished returns from the ad spots from even as recent as 10 years ago.)
to advertisers the metric is clearly paramount because they just dont have an alternative; and thats reflected in NBC walking from neilson only to be followed by neilson rapidly dropping their going rates (if the neilson data was truly valuable the market would have reflected that.) if that moment nielson acknowledged through action that the networks are more valuable to nielson than neilson is to the networks.
neilson is no longer an accurate descriptor of viewer habits. its junk data. you dont learn factual information from neilson data. its not even remotely a scientific analysis. it remains however the industry standard and will continue to dictate market responses in spite of it being total rubbish.
at this time with the near total shift of how households consume media we have virtually no clue who is watching what and its in that end that ratings are completely stupid to discuss. when we 1.1 million watched X understand that its barely more than a guess at this point. the neilson method no longer works. we are free from conventional shackles of the television standard and a ratings system that adhears to it is ludicrous.
what we cant do is discredit entirely that these networks are valuing the data and that it will impact contracts in the future
HOWEVER
this future is likely to be short lived. last month neilson lost its accreditation Due to how inacurate it is and is only being able to used on a case by case basis (something im shocked crippy didnt bring up) AND nbc is organizing a coalition to create a modern (and accurate) system that if successful will completely usurp neilson by giving actual honest data.
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Great post.
My stance has been that the ratings matter as much as important decision makers want them to matter. A great rating, as they see it, is going to be used as justification to keep you. A number they don’t value can be used to hang you. It can even be the same number interpreted differently. Is 750k good or bad? Depends on who’s looking at it and how.
Had no clue about NBC developing their own methods.
I’m surprised with so much being digital and the technological advancements that I assume have been in most houses for some time that there isn’t some sort of instant feedback when it comes to viewing habits and the like. I assumed this would be the case when my parents got upgraded to digital cable in, like, 2006 or whenever. I just assumed FOXTEL knew exactly how many people were watching one thing at one time.
Nielsen themselves state a 10% margin of error. That’s fucking huge. Rampage may have gotten 662k this week or 540k. That’s a huge chunk of audience that it just doesn’t know how to count. And what if you just watch wrestling at your parents’ house because you don’t have cable. No sense getting it for wrestling. Or if you watch it with friends? Just a really wonky way to measure viewing habits, as you said.