In TV Ratings Game, Networks Try to Dissguys Bad Newz from Nielsen

["Dave Farber" <farber () gmail com>]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org>
> Date: July 6, 2017 at 4:24:05 PM EDT
> To: Infowarrior List <infowarrior () attrition org>
> Cc: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
> Subject: In TV Ratings Game, Networks Try to Dissguys Bad Newz from Nielsen
>
> In TV Ratings Game, Networks Try to Dissguys Bad Newz from Nielsen
>
> They misspell shows to fool the firm’s automated system into ignoring broadcasts on nights with few viewers; “NBC 
> Nitely News”
>
> Joe Flint
> July 6, 2017 10:22 a.m. ET
>
> https://www.wsj.com/articles/in-tv-ratings-game-networks-try-to-dissguys-bad-newz-from-nielsen-1499350955
>
> Boosting TV ratings is easy for networks that don’t mind playing dumb.
>
> In a game largely sanctioned by TV-ratings firm Nielsen, television networks try to hide their shows’ poor 
> performances on any given night by forgetting how to spell.
>
> That explains the appearance of “NBC Nitely News,” which apparently aired on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend this 
> year, when a lot of people were away from their TVs. The retitling of “NBC Nightly News” fooled Nielsen’s automated 
> system, which listed “Nitely” as a separate show.
>
> Hiding the May 26 program from Nielsen dramatically improved the show’s average viewership that week. Instead of 
> falling further behind first-place rival “ABC World News Tonight,” NBC news narrowed the gap.
>
> Walt Disney Co.’s ABC declined to comment. The network, though, groused last month when NBC News intentionally 
> misspelled an entire week of “Nightly News” broadcasts. Altogether, NBC, which is ranked second behind ABC in 
> ratings, has played the misspell card 14 times since the start of the 2016-17 television season last fall.
>
> NBC News said it broke no rules. “As is standard industry practice, our broadcast is retitled when there are 
> pre-emptions and inconsistencies or irregularities in the schedule, which can include holiday weekends and special 
> sporting events,” a show spokesman said.
>
> The network needn’t feel defensive. ABC took its own ratings mulligan seven times during the 2016-17 season with 
> “Wrld New Tonite.” CBS misspelled “The CBS Evening News” as the “CBS Evening Nws” 12 times this season.
>
> “It’s a little bit of gamesmanship,” said Bill Carroll, a veteran TV industry consultant. “It’s a practice that 
> happens with a wink and a nod.”
>
> Nielsen projects viewer ratings based on a panel of more than 40,000 homes and 100,000 people. Higher ratings help 
> networks sell commercial time at higher rates. The network misspellings fudge that calculation, and some advertisers 
> say the trick is getting overused.
>
> “Networks never used to do this,” said Billie Gold, director of programming at ad giant Dentsu Inc. Now, she said, it 
> has become the norm.
>
> TV news executives say the higher numbers gathered from show misspellings are used only for publicity purposes, and 
> that accurate ratings for the missing broadcasts are readily available to advertisers.
>
> Ms. Gold and other ad executives say they are frustrated with the detective work required to kick the tires on 
> network viewer ratings. She said her clients are surprised by the difference between the number of eyeballs the 
> networks claim and Ms. Gold’s tally, which accounts for the altered titles.
>
> “When people ask us why our estimates are so much lower than what they see,” she said. “We explain the situation, and 
> they have their ‘ah-ha’ moment.”
>
> Faced with complaints that title typos have grown from a trickle to a torrent, Nielsen plans to hold a meeting about 
> it next week for TV industry representatives.
>
> “If we find a network working in contrast to this agreed-upon policy, we address the issue in a direct fashion as a 
> way to maintain fairness and balance for all of our clients and the industry as a whole,” Nielsen said.
>
> Nielsen has long had a so-called tilting rule that allows TV networks to fiddle with programs for special 
> circumstances. For years, tilting was used sparingly, reserved primarily for Christmas and Thanksgiving or if a show 
> was pre-empted in parts of the U.S. for a live sports event.
>
> Misspelling isn’t the only network trick. CBS boasted that its legal drama “Bull” was the most-watched new show of 
> the just-finished TV season. Typically, a show’s viewership is calculated using the ratings of both first-run and 
> repeated episodes, which are labeled “R” or “repeat.”
>
> When CBS submitted its schedule to Nielsen, however, it labeled reruns of “Bull” as an “encore.” The ratings service 
> categorized it as a different show and didn’t factor the rerun into the show’s season average.
>
> “That’s bull,” cracked Brad Adgate, a longtime ad executive who studies TV ratings. For advertisers, the network 
> sleight-of-hand is a pain in the neck, he said: “You have to pay a little more attention if you want do an analysis.”
>
> A CBS spokesman declined to comment.
>
> Another ratings game involves the calculated placement of national TV commercials. NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” 
> typically loads all of its national commercials in the first hour of the 90-minute show. Since Nielsen counts viewers 
> of a show only through the last network commercial break, the ratings service ignores SNL’s last half-hour, when 
> viewers generally turn away.
>
> Sometimes networks sneak in a second airing of a show and add the additional viewers to tally of the original 
> telecast and hope no one notices.
>
> NBC in 2015 persuaded almost a dozen of its local TV station affiliates to rerun “Nightly News” after 2 a.m. At the 
> time, NBC said, it was focused “on ways to reach our audience when and how they want to be reached.”
>
> A rival network thought otherwise and alerted NBC advertisers to the practice. After learning of the stunt, many 
> advertisers cried foul. They told NBC whoever was watching the newscast at that hour wasn’t the kind of consumer they 
> wanted to reach. NBC said it quickly discontinued the practice.



-------------------------------------------
Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now
RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/18849915-ae8fa580
Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-aa268125
Unsubscribe Now: 
https://www.listbox.com/unsubscribe/?member_id=18849915&id_secret=18849915-32545cb4&post_id=20170706164901:87F4EA98-628C-11E7-948E-A57FA17D4DB7
Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com