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Essay Subject: Discusses the growth & importance of audience ratings in the television industry.... More...

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Paper Abstract: Discusses the growth & importance of audience ratings in the television industry. Paper Introduction: Audience ratings have been important to the mass media from the beginning of radio broadcasting and have continued to be essential components in the business of television. There are several competing systems that gather ratings for broadcasting, but the most prominent of these is the A.C. Nielsen Company, a name that is known to television viewers who have no interest in ratings or advertising decisions at all. The Nielsen ratings have also been the center of controversy for many years because of the fact that they serve such an important purpose to the television networks in determining what programs are broadcast, and more recently they have been controversial within the networks because of a perception that they are not as accurate as the networks would like. A.C. Nielsen succeeded C.E. Hooper as the most important Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. .And Now, A Word with Their Sponsors." Business Week, June 18, 199 , pp. Bierbaum, "Broadcasters Ask Nielsen to Measure Up--With aProposal," Variety (May 23, 199 ), p. In 1949 Nielsen achieve his goal of nationalprojectable ratings. CBS and NBC were considered likely to follow suit.1 This move did not mean that the networks were ready or even able toabandon the ratings as either a decision-making device or an advertisingcomponent. BibliographyBehrens, Steve. There are several competingsystems that gather ratings for broadcasting, but the most prominent ofthese is the A.C. The sample size in 1965 was 115 , increased to125 by 1982.2 Nielsen also continued to improve Audimeter technology and introducedthe Storage Instantaneous Audimeter (SIA) in 1973. However,networks have recently expressed their dissatisfaction with the Nielsenratings by challenging this system. It is clear that thegrowth of cable and other viewing technologies have undercut viewership forthe three networks, and the decline has continued this year across theboard. 9Richard Huff, "Nielsen Offers Solutions for Tracking Black Viewers,"Variety (June 6, 199 ), p. He added television marketsthroughout the 195 s and started national ratings based on total televisionhouseholds beginning in 196 . Nielsen had established a successful market researchbusiness and saw the Audimeter in 1936, recognizing both its advantages andthe shortcomings of the existing model. 7Steve Behrens, "The Weak Link in Ratings," Channels (June 1988), p.18. The network denied that the steep declines shown in the Nielsenratings had anything to do with its decision, simply claiming that thesystem is unreliable and volatile and that the network has lost confidencein it. In 1983 thelargest change in the Nielsen's since the institution of the system wasundertaken when the superstations and the new satellite cable networksdemanded an increase in the sample from 125 to 17 homes; this wasaccomplished in increments of 5 households per year, with priority givento 15 homes that were cable subscribers.4 The Nielsen company has several divisions providing different data tosubscribers. 3. "Broadcasters Ask Nielsen to Measure Up--With a Proposal." Variety, May 23, 199 , p. 3.Kissinger, David. Audience ratings have been important to the mass media from thebeginning of radio broadcasting and have continued to be essentialcomponents in the business of television. 3Beville, Audience Ratings (1985), pp. Nielsen succeeded C.E. . A second device is used in households withcable converters and VCRs. Elder had always considered the Audimeter as a way of measuringthe effectiveness of advertising, but Nielsen saw the ratings that could beproduced as important in themselves. What concerned broadcasters was a recent steep decline inratings that they believed was not justified, and the networks in 199 asked Nielsen to develop a new system that would augment and supplement thepeoplemeter results. 11D. The device used in the majority of homes isthe local oscillator attachment (LOA), which is installed by inserting aninsulated probe into the tuner. Hooper ratings were the staple of radio from themid 194 s. 6Beville, Audience Ratings (1988), pp. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1985.Beville, Hugh Malcolm Jr., Audience Ratings: Radio, Television, and Cable. 7 -72. "Nielsen Offers Solutions for Tracking Black Viewers." Variety, June 6, 199 , p. 1 Mark Landler, ". The networks have also stated that thesample of cable households is too high, making the ratings "aberrant"because such a sample hurts network ratings.7 Various groups in society have been unhappy with the ratings as well. 75. Nielsen began using peoplemeters in 1974, but no effort was made tointroduce such meters until 1983, at which time Nielsen installed apeoplemeter sample which reached 1, by 1987.5 The Nielsen Peoplemeter uses a microprocessor-based unit calledHomeunit that controls the measurement system installed in a meteredhousehold. 17-23). 75.Huff, Richard. By 1984 this procedure wasin use for all network stations but not for affiliates. Now, it is the networks themselves who are complaining becausethey do not like the figures they are seeing. For years, critics of the ratings deplored the fact that alldecisions were made based on these figures, which many believed wereinaccurate. 26. A.C. ". By March 195 Nielsen had purchased Hooper'snational radio service.1 Nielsen turned to television in the early 195 s and began takingmetered ratings information and analyzing it. Certain age groups were severely under-represented in earliersamples, which has shifted ratings for some networks that do well with oneage group and not with another. Hooper as the most important ratingsservice in broadcasting. The sample homesare connected by a special telephone line so that the data can be collectedby the Center at any time, though it is usually done between 2: AM and6: AM daily. Advertisers, however, were considered likely toresist any new approach unless it was clearly superior.11 Whether the networks are right is uncertain. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1988.Bierbaum, D. By 1965, Nielsen had converted to anew sample based on the 196 census data and added the Mountain Time zone.A systematic sample was now constructed so that no homes remained in thesample over five years. 26-28.----------------------- 8 With the growth in cable and satellitetelevision, advertisers have had a much greater choice, but they have alsohad a more difficult decision-making process because of the wider choiceand the increased information provided by ratings services. 7 -72. In truth, one of the reasonsnetwork viewership declined in the Peoplemeter ratings is because thoseratings are more accurate and better able to differentiate demographicdata. Nielsen equipmentcollects on a 3 -second basis.6 The Peoplemeter did not satisfy the networks, however, which havebeen unhappy with this technology in part because it requires the activeparticipation of the people in the household. This is really a family of collection devices, with thespecific use determined by cost, ease of installation, and the videoequipment of each household. This device providedday-after ratings for local market services in New York and Los Angeles and48-hour ratings for national network television shows. homes. A.C. 8David Kissinger, "Nielsen Eyes Black Viewers," Variety (March 7,199 ), p. . Hooper and Nielsen were now in direct competition,but Nielsen was the winner because he had a continuous meter service thatoperated around the clock. Notes 1Hugh Malcolm Beville, Jr., Audience Ratings: Radio, Television, andCable (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1985), pp. 287-289. 4Beville, Audience Ratings (1985), pp. Audience Ratings: Radio, Television, and Cable. This fact along with dwindling regard for theaccuracy of diary results in an era of growing cable, independenttelevision, and VCR penetration opened the way for a competitor, AGB, in1983. Ratings werebased on a sample size of 11 homes. 1.Landler, Mark. Instant processing enables the computer to develop localfigures by 9: AM, but network ratings require an extra day because of thenecessity of verifying station line-ups.3 Since 1977, Nielsen has been automating the network station procedurewith its Automated Measurement of Lineups (AMOL), which employs digitalcoding of all network program episodes transmitted in one of the verticalblanking intervals of the television picture. ABC announced that it would no longertie its advertising rates strictly to the monthly Nielsen measures of itsviewers. "Nielsen Eyes Black Viewers." Variety, March 7, 199 , p. He knew that he would need asubstantial number of Audimeters to monitor enough radios to producestatistically significant results. Black viewers have been under-represented, for instance, and Nielsenrecently met with television producers and advertising agencies that targetblack audiences to try to work out a better system for reporting on thisspecific audience.8 A few months later, a change was announced by thecompany, and beginning this year Nielsen will offer as many as 2 blackdemographic breakdowns as part of its monthly National Audience DemographicReport.9 From the beginning of the ratings, television networks and stationshave used the ratings as a way of attracting advertisers, and advertisershave used the ratings to assure themselves that they are reaching the sizeaudience they desire and, more recently, the demographically constitutedaudience they wish to target. 5Hugh Malcolm Beville, Jr., Audience Ratings: Radio, Television, andCable (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1988, 287-289. By that time, station and network facilitieshad increased to the point where the average network program could beviewed by well over 9 percent of all U.S. 1. The Audimeter was used commercially for the first timein 1935. Nielsen Company, a name that is known to televisionviewers who have no interest in ratings or advertising decisions at all.The Nielsen ratings have also been the center of controversy for many yearsbecause of the fact that they serve such an important purpose to thetelevision networks in determining what programs are broadcast, and morerecently they have been controversial within the networks because of aperception that they are not as accurate as the networks would like. The Nielsen Television Index is the service started in 195 reporting television ratings. By 1946, Nielsen had coverage of 63percent of all U.S. .And Now, A Word with Their Sponsors," BusinessWeek (June 18, 199 ), p. He worked out a deal with the inventorsin 1936. 2Beville, Audience Ratings (1985), pp. The SIA devicerecords all set usage and holds the data in storage ready for retrievalfrom Nielsen's main computer center in Dunedin, Florida. Since 1978, Nielsen set meters have measuredrecord/play of VCRs in addition to channel tuned during recording, and thecompany credits VCR recording as television usage. The networks have also beenunhappy because the Peoplemeter ratings show lower network viewership thanthe networks think should be the case. "The Weak Link in Ratings." Channels, June 1988, p. TV households. 18.Beville, Hugh Malcolm Jr. 7 -72. Nielsen also started out as a radio ratings service with theuse of a meter--the Nielsen Audimeter--created by Robert Elder and othersbeginning in 1933. The National Audience Composition servicesupplies people viewing data from a parallel sample of panel households.When Nielsen raised the number of NTI households to 17 to accommodatecable, it did not increase the NAC sample, leaving the industry unhappywith the NAC service. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.