Why Does the Airtime of a TV Show Still Matter?

[Andonagio]

Over in the "NBC cancels Law & Order" thread, some of us observed how L&O started to dip in ratings around the same time NBC moved the show from its traditional Wednesday 10:00 pm timeslot. By the same token, we're all familiar with the "Friday night death slot" and how it usually affects ratings.

Yet in this era of TiVo, VCRs, file-sharing, Hulu, YouTube and other time-delay technologies, I fail to understand why the broadcast time of a show even matters anymore. Those of us who want to watch a show will watch it no matter when it airs, and if it gets broadcast at an inopportune time or against another show we want to see, we'll copy it for later or catch it on Hulu. If we don't know when the show airs, we'll just look up the broadcast schedule on our online, searchable TV guides. I for one almost never watch live TV these days, and I never have trouble finding out when my favorite shows come on.

But we still see time and time again, even to this day, how the broadcast time of a TV show affects its ratings. I know that part of the problem is that the Nielsen ratings are still having trouble accounting for video recordings and internet broadcasts, but given the impact of broadcast time, there have to be other factors.

Thoughts?

 

[RoJoHen]

I'd wager the majority of people still watch regular broadcasts on TV.

 

[LeadHead]

Ever since I got a DVR I think I've watched maybe 5-10% of my shows at the time they actually aired. To me, the times don't matter.

 

[C.E. Evans]

It matters to advertisers who sponsor broadcast shows.

It'll still remain important until the means are developed for sponsors to track what everyone is watching at anytime, regardless if it's a real-time broadcast, a recording, or a download, IMO.

 

[Icemizer]

Do your parents Tivo or DVR? Do your grandparents? If not you are already outnumbered 4-1 which means the vast majority of people are still watching shows when they are broadcast. This percentage will change as you age and these older folks are no longer with us. But right now and at least for the next 10-20 years while they are with us they will maintain their viewing habits.
Taking that into consideration if you move a show against something they are already watching the show you moved will get watched less. Rating will fall, advertising rates will drop and the show will get cancelled.

 

[cultcross]

Are viewers on Tivo, DVR, Hulu, iPlayer equivalents, etc etc measurable in terms of ratings? Because if not, they're irrelevant as far as setting the advertising price for the show when it's broadcast.

 

[Hermiod]

^Online services such as Hulu and iPlayer, yes. DVRs maybe.

People seem to refer to DVR viewership coming in late after a show airs, but I do not know how this is tracked. TiVo do seem to have some sort of ability to see how many people are watching a show.

 

[Marten]

The Economist had a quite interesting section regarding TV a few weeks ago. They, among else, wrote about this, and the biggest reason is that people like to watch TV at the same time like everyone else, as a social thing.

 

[Icemizer]

Hulu and iplayer are not truely measurable in term of Neilson type statistics. There is no way to gauge who is viewing the progamming. It is simply an IP address that has called up the program to be viewed. This is a problem for advertisers in terms of what ads to place during the shows. Right now they are mainly running the same type of ads(cars, fastfood) that they do when the show really broadcasts. Tracking numbers of people watching is ok but unless you know who the audience watching is, targeting advertising is next to impossible. And thats where the money is.

 

[I Grok Spock]

I'd wager the majority of people still watch regular broadcasts on TV.

The Economist had a quite interesting section regarding TV a few weeks ago. They, among else, wrote about this, and the biggest reason is that people like to watch TV at the same time like everyone else, as a social thing.

I agree. Despite the vast array of technology at my disposal, I still like watching "live" broadcast, commercials and all.

 

[John Clark]

I typically don't watch much online or on catchup. I've just been in the habit of watching at the usual broadcast time (or recording if it clashes).

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I never watch anything live. Commercials effectively do not exist for me. I skip over all of them. Good riddance to the bastards.

As for air times? I never paid attention to them either. My DVR takes care of all of that. I don't even know when my shows air.

 

[Starbreaker]

DVR ratings are good for 7 days. After that, they're considered worthless.

 

[bigdaddy]

I'd wager the majority of people still watch regular broadcasts on TV.

WOW! THERE IS A SHOCK!

Just like most people still only have a SD TV... I know I'm blowing away the minds of everyone here!

 

[DeafPoet]

DVR ratings are good for 7 days. After that, they're considered worthless.

And I suspect even then they're not worth as much as people would like to believe.

If I were an advertiser a "live" viewer would be worth much more to me than someone who is probably skipping all my ads.

 

[Starbreaker]

That's the major reason. Also, when you see these Live+7 numbers, they usually don't change by more than a couple of million.

 

[Vendikarr]

Are viewers on Tivo, DVR, Hulu, iPlayer equivalents, etc etc measurable in terms of ratings? Because if not, they're irrelevant as far as setting the advertising price for the show when it's broadcast.

The problem is, ratings exist not to measure who is watching a particular show, they are to measure who is watching television during that hour, so the advertisers know how many and who their ads are reaching.

DVR users tend to skip over ads, which defeats the purpose of ratings. And the same ads are not attached to shows viewed online, so again, the ratings are not relevant to the advertiser.

There is no hurry to count other media viewers or DVR users, because they don't matter as much to the tv advertisers.

 

[Temis the Vorta]

I'd wager the majority of people still watch regular broadcasts on TV.

Bingo. And among the people who count (the ones who watch the ads), regular-broadcast viewing is even more the norm.

It'll still remain important until the means are developed for sponsors to track what everyone is watching at anytime, regardless if it's a real-time broadcast, a recording, or a download, IMO.

The real factor will be the networks' ability to track ad-viewing across all methods of viewing. Then they'll have a way of filtering out the parasitical viewers (those who don't watch the ads) so they can cater to the ad-viewers more precisely in the shows they develop.

It goes without saying that a lot of us (including me ) are parasitical viewers whose opinions will matter less and less as networks figure out who we are and what we watch. The fact that there are no space operas on TV, serialized shows are becoming more rare, and cop/lawyer/doctor shows and sitcoms are taking over more than ever, shows us the trends of the future: the kinds of shows that ad-viewers like to watch are being developed in preference to the kinds that ad-skippers like.

DVR ratings are good for 7 days. After that, they're considered worthless.

And I suspect even then they're not worth as much as people would like to believe.

If I were an advertiser a "live" viewer would be worth much more to me than someone who is probably skipping all my ads.

The problem is, a lot of the "news" on this topic is generated by networks, as part of their PR campaign to convince advertisers that they should value DVR ratings. I've heard that the 7-day ratings are worthless and the value of ad viewing expires after three days, and some expire immediately if not viewed when they are scheduled. Many ads are timed to be viewed on the day they run - movie ads that run on Thursdays for weekend movie-goers for instance. That same ad viewed on Sunday isn't nearly as worthwhile.

 

[Hermiod]

I'd wager the majority of people still watch regular broadcasts on TV.

WOW! THERE IS A SHOCK!

Just like most people still only have a SD TV... I know I'm blowing away the minds of everyone here!

Not true anymore, 65% of US households have a HDTV.

 

[Owain Taggart]

It's important for live shows and live broadcasts, like the Olympics which are very time-sensitive for instance. It's also why the Superbowl is such a valued advertising spot, because they know that people are watching it now and not later.