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Audience Ratings
Ratings data provide estimates of
specific audiences
Ex. # of 18-34 Women listen to
radio station
Ratings help in programming
decisions
Setting commercial rates
Selling commercial time to
advertisers
Ratings
Organizations
Arbitron - Radio
A.C. Nielsen - TV and Cable
Concepts of
Audience Survey Research
Not counting entire audience of a
program or station
Too time-consuming and expensive
Use statistical surveys
Data on small group’s tuning
activity
Projects results from sample to
the entire mkt..
Group activity is an estimate of
tuning for entire audience
What is an
Audience?
A collection of individuals
But, individual what?
Could be single individuals,
could be groups of individuals
Whatever the "what" is
= elementary unit
In audience research, elementary
unit is often the household
What is an
Audience?
All households in a survey area
make up a POPULATION
A SAMPLE is selected from the
population
Audience Survey
Samples
Sample must be a probability
sample, which is a.k.a. a Random Sample
Random selection means each unit
of the population must have an equal chance of being selected for the sample
And, each unit must be selected
strictly by chance
Random Samples Are
Better
More likely to be representative
of the entire population
Are able to calculate an estimate
of sampling error
Accuracy
As Sample size increases, so does
accuracy
An intact sample requires a
relatively small number of units to ensure acceptable accuracy
Ex. - Nielsen uses 5,000 HH to
gauge network viewing nationwide
History of
Audience Measurement
Cooperative Analysis of
Broadcasting (CAB) - 1930
Collected data on radio network
listening in 35 cities across U.S.
Used telephone recall method
Call at different times of day to
homes randomly selected from directory and ask what programs people had listened to
Problematic b/c of human memory
History of
Audience Measurement
C.E. Hooper company
Telephone coincidental method
(ask what listening to at time of call)
Hopperatings sold to advertisers,
agencies, and broadcasters
A.C. Nielsen Company - 1942
Audimeter-connected to radio and
scratched out which station tuned to and how long
History of
Audience Measurement
Nielsen’s Audimeter
Measured set use, not if anyone
was listening
Used on TV in 1950s (hooked up to
TV, send film back after a week’s viewing for analysis)
Nielsen Family received .50 cents
a week
Nielsen Television Index (NTI)
(network programs
Nielsen Station Index (NSI) local
TV mkts.
History of
Audience Measurement
Arbitron (American Research
Bureau) entered local TV ratings race in 1949
Introduced the Diary
Sample of viewers record viewing
in a special book (diary) and mail back to Arbitron
Nielsen began using diaries in
1955, while Arbitron added its version of the audimeter
History of
Audience Measurement
Nielsen overnight ratings became
available for local TV markets with the storage instantaneous audimeter (SIA)
SIA sent information directly
from the audimeter to Nielsen’s computers for analysis
Peoplemeter
Recorded channel, time, and who
was watching
Punched in your number on remote
control
History of
Audience Measurement
Peoplemeter advantages
Not affected by memory (forget to
fill out diary)
Data sent electronically to
Nielsen, no diary mailings
Report on who is watching unlike
SIA
History of
Audience Measurement
Peoplemeter disadvantages
Expensive to install and maintain
Hard to measure children’s
viewing (kids get bored punching the buttons)
Only measures at-home viewing (no
bars, dorms, work)
Nielsen has no serious competitor
for TV
Arbitron dominates local radio
ratings
Audience Survey
Markets
National Markets
Network programs
Syndicated programs
Local Markets
Local outlets and programs
Consists, usually, of area’s
largest city and those surrounding counties in which that city’s stations are most
often watched and heard
Market Areas
Designated Market Area (DMA)
Nielsen assigns every county to a
DMA
Any market whose stations achieve
the largest total % of the TV audience in a county is considered the home market for that
county
Area of Dominant Influence (ADI)
Arbitron - Radio
Sweeps
Sweeps months are Feb., May,
July, and November
Nielsen conducts diary surveys in
all markets, small and large, during the same time period
Results indicate how well
individual stations are doing and allow a network to gauge its general effectiveness and
that of its affiliates
Arbitron conducts winter, spring,
summer and fall surveys
Ratings
Percentage of sample households
tuned to a particular station/program
Ex. 1000 households
195 tuned to Station A
289 tuned to Station B
345 tuned to Station C
Rating for A = 195/1000 = .195
= 19.5 Rating
HUTs
HUT = Households-using-television
829 homes using TV
HUT is calculated as a percentage
of the total sample
829/1000 = .829 = 83 HUT rating
Share
Share is the percentage of the
audience (all households in the sample actually using television) tuned to a particular
station
Ex. Station A had 195 viewers
195/829 = .23
Station A has a 23 share
© B.L. Yates 2000
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