Given the changes in how audiences consume media, do ratings still
matter? Why or why not? And are there alternative ways to track media
consumption? Limit: 11 responses
Media changes very frequently making it imperative to consider what people are actually looking at and using. It is pretty noticeable that people are not viewing as much television as they did in the past. This makes it hard to really look into ratings and decide if they even matter. Of course, we can look at other ways in order to track media consumption. The first thing that comes to mind when thinking about ratings to many people, especially within older generations is Nielsen Media Research (NMR). This company helps to track television, cable, and advertisements. NMR though within this quickly evolving industry of media is not always the most thought about when considering all forms of media consumption. As of right now, I do believe that television ratings do matter but not to the extent that they have in the past; simply because of the different forms of media that are present today. “As long as revenue from advertisers remains part of the network TV business model, ratings will matter.” (Adalian, 2017) We have to look at the bigger picture here, even those “big dogs” such as Disney and CBS have had a pretty large decrease in viewers within the past few years making it hard to rely on commercials in order to succeed. I believe that it is important to look at how many subscribers there are on streaming services currently in order to see which platform is most successful. This will help competitors and the industry decide what that company is doing well or what can be improved upon within the future. Netflix is a great example to look at when considering the area to improve within the streaming industry. They have lost a significant number of subscribers within the past year, whereas their competitors have gained such as Disney and Apple. Currently, it is pretty easy to track any media consumption even as a user yourself. You can use social media tracking tools such as Hootsuite, Google Analytics, and even Analytics within most social media apps to see how your specific platform is doing for yourself or your company. Essentially, ratings are not going anywhere anytime soon, in fact, ratings are going to help large media conglomerates and even those smaller ones such as streaming services help to improve their companies. Now more than ever there are so many different ways in which large companies can look into data and measure their audience. Third-party measurements, streaming, social, multiplatform, live, and even binge-watching are just a few to name when considering ratings. Regarding ratings as a whole, media is going nowhere so ratings are always going to be important it is just not going to be done the same way as traditional media has done in the past.
Adalian, J. (2017, May 17). TV Ratings Are Way Down, but Does It Even Matter Anymore? Retrieved from https://slate.com/culture/2017/05/tv-ratings-are-way-down-but-does-it-even-matter-anymore.html
Szalai, G. (2019, October 30). When Will Netflix Finally End Its Cash Burn? Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/will-netflix-finally-end-cash-burn-1250782?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR's Today in Entertainment_now_2019-10-30 07:15:10_aweprin&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie
Contributors, H. S. W. (2000, July 28). How do television ratings work? Retrieved from https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/question433.htm
Porter, R. (2020, January 3). TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591
Katerina Bressette As technology continues to progress and advance, so does the way we view television. We now live in a time where the term “TV” means more than a wire-filled box designed to portray entertainment for the whole family. It is now portable and individualized; a term used to describe content. If how we view television is changing, then how we track, and record media consumption is also changing. Throughout the beginning decades of TV viewing, entertainment blossomed in the consumer’s eye. More content was being created and new shows were airing Live more and more. To determine how many people were watching these shows and which ones were the most popular, media and broadcasting companies relied on ratings each night. These “overnight metered market ratings” were reported to the companies first thing in the morning and helped to determine which shows were popular amongst the public and which shows should be aired in the future. (Porter) Due to the increased popularity of streaming and video on demand services and a decrease in the viewing of Live TV, these overnight ratings seem to have less accuracy and relevance. Ryan Murphy, a producer, reports to E! News, “You were a winner or a loser overnight, and you knew overnight exactly where you were. And I think that it's not about that anymore. I never feel that overnight ratings on anything tell the story. I feel like it's just the tip of the iceberg.” (Santos) It appears that many media professionals are turning away from using Nielsen ratings to determine show popularity and instead are looking towards data recording over longer periods of time. Each year more and more consumers are watching TV shows and movies from devices other than the traditional TV. Multiplatform viewing has begun to affect how we view overnight ratings because although the overnight ratings might be initially low, after analyzing the multiplatform data over a longer period, the numbers show a different result. “On average, multiplatform viewing boosted viewership by 24.5 percent over the TV only 35-day ratings.” (Porter) New technologies and ways of viewing content are causing media professionals to look beneath the surface, to more long-term data and statistics from different devices in order to really understand viewing habits and television show popularity. Looking towards data results rather than ratings might also be more influential when determining what shows to produce to ultimately gain the most viewers. With a myriad of streaming services coming into play over the next couple of years, creating original content is becoming a must for media conglomerates who are trying to differentiate themselves within the industry. But creating original content might not be enough according to Christian Parkes, chief marketing officer at Neon, “‘Is content still king? I'd say data is king,’ he said. ‘If you aren't relying heavily on it, you are going to lose.’” (Roxborough) As Gen Z continues to grow older, more and more people will be watching streaming services or VOD rather than Live TV and cable. Ratings continue to exist and are influential for now due to the majority of Baby Boomers still watching “traditional” television. Based on the progression of technology and multiplatform viewing, ratings may not be important to producers, but rather data and statistics may be the future for media consumption tracking.
Katerina Bressette Works Cited Porter, Rick. “TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data.” The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Jan. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591. Porter, Rick. “TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits.” The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Dec. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608. Roxborough, Scott. “Indie Execs Say Content Is No Longer King - Data Is.” The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Nov. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/indie-execs-say-content-is-no-longer-king-data-is-1253623?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR%27s%2BToday%2Bin%2BEntertainment_2019-11-09%2B07%3A00%3A00_aweprin&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie. Santos, Kristin Dos. “Do TV Ratings Even Matter Any More?” E! Online, E! News, 21 Mar. 2018, www.eonline.com/news/922015/do-ratings-still-matter-ryan-murphy-argues-there-are-no-rules-any-more.
Given the changes in how audiences consume media, I’d argue that ratings are not as significant as they once were. Ratings are not completely useless, but the big difference is that ratings no longer provide the most precise data for tracking audiences. Until the early 2000s, network executives, reporters and others interested in the previous night's audience had to make a phone call to get them (Porter, Oct 2019), Nielsen would report the ratings from the previous night’s shows, and those numbers were then available to anyone wanting to know how a show performed (Porter, Oct 2019). However, Nielsen does not track the ratings for just that one sole period of time. Technically, they can track viewership for basically however long they want to after a show airs the first time. However, in many cases there is not a considerable difference in the number of viewers for a program after the initial broadcast. This becomes arguably the biggest limitation for the Nielsen ratings when tracking viewership. Nielsen does not currently track multi-platform viewing, which reveals a big shift in viewing habits (Porter, Nov 2019). Among the top 20 shows where digital ratings figures are available, multi-platform viewing can account for over a third of the total rating in the 18-49 demographic (Porter, Nov 2019). What this data tells us is that the digital audience is clearly growing. Some programming will get more viewers this way than on-air showings, but tracking these numbers is sometimes a challenging task.
There are other ways to track media consumption which we now utilize as an additional measurement. One of these methods is through streaming ratings. In 2017, Nielsen began tracking Netflix viewing habits for the first time. The downside being that Netflix often disagrees with what Nielsen is reporting. One Netflix spokesperson at the time said that Nielsen’s data “is not accurate, not even close, and does not reflect the viewing” [of its’ shows] (Burch, 2019). An additional method of measurement is third-party measurements. Companies measure things like out-of-home viewing or binge viewing, but they can rely on users to opt in to sharing data, which can lead to a less representative sample (Porter, Oct 2019). We can also look to a more conversational approach, in the form of social ratings. This measures the social engagement around a show including posts about it, and reach of conversation (Porter, Oct 2019). The drawback to this being that social engagement and conversation does not always equate to high on-air ratings for a show. Nonetheless, a couple of things are certain: A) Streaming services are continuing to gain traction, meaning that the industry could be moving closer to a post-ratings landscape. B) The move away from ratings-based success has shifted the power balance more towards the streaming services than content creators (Burch, 2019). Nielsen’s tv ratings can still be of use in some context, but more information is needed to see the full picture.
Works Cited
Burch, S. (2019, June 27). TV Ratings in 2019: What Counts as a Streaming ‘View’? Retrieved February 1, 2020, from https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tv-ratings-2019-counts-streaming-185405459.html
Porter, R. (2019, October 5). TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data. Retrieved February 1, 2020, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591
Porter, R. (2019, November 13). TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits. Retrieved February 1, 2020, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608
While there has been a large increase in OTT viewing, many households still subscribe to traditional television. Starting back in the analog days TV, Nielson has been producing nightly ratings for televised programs. Before the early 2000s, these ratings would be available by phone where people who were interested could call in and hear the numbers recited. Today, the ratings are sent out via email. Because of the large shift towards streaming, the data that is being given has also changed. Nielson now provides 3- day, 7- day, multiplatform and commercial data. The data for ratings may be used differently today than it was used in the past, but the data still does matter. Hollywood reporter talked about how in today’s media society, content is not the most important factor, the data is. A chief marketing officer for Neon said, “…I would say data is king. If you aren’t relying heavily on it, you are going to lose.” He went on to talk about how in order to get your content across successfully, you have to find a niche audience. Once you have found that audience, you have to create content that you know will satisfy them. But before all of that, the only way you can identify your niche audience is through data. Multiplatform viewing and the ratings from various platforms show the large shift in viewing habits. This includes data from streaming and digital apps, it can include platforms like Netflix/ Hulu or viewings from the network’s app/ website. It can be hard to track all of the data from the different platforms being used, “A number of companies measure things like out-of-home viewing or binge viewing, but they can rely on users to opt in to sharing data, which can lead to a less representative sample” (Porter, 2019). I think with the current trends in today’s media, the best way to track consumption is to focus on gathering data starting from streaming services and then working down to traditional television. Nielson does not currently measure streaming audiences, but they do measure social media engagement for different shows. This data can be helpful for streaming services so they can get a more specific idea of what content is getting the most interaction on social media. When we look at something like the streaming wars, we can see that companies like Netflix and Hulu don’t need to worry too much about their ratings. This is a case where collecting data and creating content for those niche audiences is going to help them out. With the increase of cord cutters, traditional television may want to continue to watch ratings, but they can also largely benefit from focusing on data.
State of OTT. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations-and-Whitepapers/2019/State-of-OTT
Roxborough, S. (2019, November 9). Indie Execs Say Content Is No Longer King - Data Is. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/indie-execs-say-content-is-no-longer-king-data-is-1253623?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR's Today in Entertainment_2019-11-09 07:00:00_aweprin&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie
Porter, R. (2020, January 3). TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591 Porter, R. (2019, December 20). TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608
Traditional television ratings are no longer as important as they once were. The broad concept of ratings and viewership, which includes television ratings, is still very important. Traditional television ratings, which are tracked by Nielsen, are becoming less representative of the greater trends. The Hollywood Reporter explains that “Nielsen ratings are calculated based on a sample of 40,000 homes and about 100,000 people” (Porter, TV Long View). Rick Porter adds that this sample is only a small portion of the 120 million homes across the nation with television. In essence, it is an entirely accurate method to evaluate consumption trends. Porter defends the sample by saying it’s larger than a political poll, but there is technology readily available and active that can provide a larger sample size of data. Paula Clancey, Senior Manager of Data Innovation and Insights with Effectv, which is the advertising arm of Comcast, explained that Comcast’s cable boxes are able to track user habits without requiring Nielsen’s assistance. Specifically, she said that Comcast is able to study audience trends based on a sample size of over one million homes. One million homes are definitely more representative of the U.S. population than 40,000 homes. Comcast, which owns NBC, has also begun multiplatform tracking, which measures traditional same-day viewership alongside digital and streaming viewership. It is not alone in this endeavor, however, as ABC, FOX, and CBS have also been tracking multiplatform viewership (Porter, TV Ratings). Porter writes that NBC, ABC, and FOX’s multiplatform figures for premiere week show “season and series premieres doubling, tripling and even quadrupling their same-day numbers — and in a couple cases even doubling their 35-day, TV-only ratings” (Porter, TV Ratings). In essence, if advertisers relied only on data from Nielsen, they would be severely misled. More people are watching these shows than Nielsen ratings would indicate, which would provide advertisers with more eyeballs on their products and services. In turn, networks such as NBC, ABC, and FOX can generate more revenue from selling airtime to advertisers. Josef Adalian of Vulture explains that the decline in television ratings has led to less advertising revenue for cable and broadcast networks (“TV Ratings Are Way Down”). He continues by saying that “since the whole reason ratings exist is to help networks determine how much to charge for ad time, it only follows that the less important ad money becomes, the less all-important those Nielsen numbers are” (Adalian). A revamped rating system that doesn’t rely solely on Nielsen might help networks prove to advertisers that their shows will get their commercials a significant amount of attention. While there are multiple ways for an organization to make money from one of its shows, such as selling the rights to stream a show to Netflix or Hulu, it is difficult to profit off of a show that is drawing poor ratings from Nielsen. Poor ratings can scare away advertisers, which would be detrimental even if a network could find another method to make money from its show. This could impact the livelihood of the people involved with the production of the program, so it is critical that the system in place is accurate. Ratings and advertising are changing in order to keep up with changing audience trends. Newer forms of tracking and data collection are going to be the way that advertisers reach the audiences that they want to speak to. Nielsen is going to fall behind and become increasingly obsolete unless it can change its narrow scope. Ratings are changing and becoming more complex, but they are still important.
Adalian, Josef. “TV Ratings Are Way Down, But Does It Even Matter?” Vulture, Vulture, 15 May 2017, www.vulture.com/2017/05/tv-ratings-are-way-down-but-does-it-even-matter.html.
Porter, Rick. “TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data.” The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Jan. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591.
Porter, Rick. “TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits.” The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Dec. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608.
When it comes to television data, do we really need things such as the Nielsen ratings? Sure, we see what shows are currently being streamed on a consistent basis week by week. Are we accounting for everything though? Are we accounting for shows that are stream able after they premiere on platforms such as Hulu? When it comes to the ratings system the best example, I can provide is The Monday Night Wrestling wars vs the current Wednesday night wars. If you compare the two you would think that wrestling is dying. In the late 90s WCW and the WWF were at a weekly war to see who would gain more viewership, with it ultimately ending when WCW was shut down in early 2001. A near decade later WWE NXT and AEW are in a similar war but with the data showing that both have lower viewership. So, what is it? Why were the ratings in the 90s so much higher? Is it that people don’t watch wrestling anymore? Look at it like this, I never watch AEW or NXT live but I’m watching both weekly. Thanks to on demand streaming on YouTube TV and Hulu I am able to watch both shows whenever I want. It’s hard to judge based on Nielsen ratings still. Although they are popular source to use, do they account for shows being recorded or shows being streamed. Lately networks have started to incorporate these two things by accounting for both the live viewership and viewership within a 35-day span across multiple platforms. So, when you read the ratings initially you aren’t getting the full number of viewers until you read the later situation. I feel by incorporating this system we have a better chance of understanding what shows are truly popular. When you look at the graph shown in one of the articles listed you notice that a lot of the numbers tend to double or at least increase over that 35-day period. With this said though, Is this killing the industry?” "I am frankly terrified of what is going on in the marketplace right now," said Christian Parkes, chief marketing officer at Neon, the specialist distributor that has enjoyed success with impossible-to-categorize films like I, Tonya ($30 million domestic gross) and Bong Joon Ho's Parasite ($7.5 million domestically so far on the way to, Parkes estimates, $10 million-plus).” It’s crazy how so many people are terrified at creating anything new. With success of Marvel studios and all the Disney rereleases, it shows a lot of companies that capitalizing on successful markets is the way to go with making money. I, Tonya was a fantastic film but doesn’t receive the acclaim it should because it wasn’t incredibly popular. Lately it seems the only movies that get any press or break any box office records are a part of the marvel or Star Wars franchise. Data still has a relevancy in today’s society its just taking a different stance. And its possible the reason that original content is currently dying.
Roxborough, S. (2019, November 9). Indie Execs Say Content Is No Longer King - Data Is. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/indie-execs-say-content-is-no-longer-king-data-is-1253623?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR's Today in Entertainment_2019-11-09 07:00:00_aweprin&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie
Porter, R. (2020, January 3). TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591 Porter, R. (2019, December 20). TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608
Adalian, Josef. “TV Ratings Are Way Down, But Does It Even Matter?” Vulture, Vulture, 15 May 2017, www.vulture.com/2017/05/tv-ratings-are-way-down-but-does-it-even-matter.html.
Founded nearly 30 years ago, the internet has played a prominent role in the advancement of technology. The company that has lead the tech world to where it is today can be attributed to Apple. In 2001, Apple released the first iPod allowing users to listen and digitally download their music portably. The iPod introduced a new concept of shopping to users, allowing them to no longer go to a physical store to purchase their music. In 2007, Apple released the first iPhone that allowed users to be able to receive phone calls, text messages, capture pictures while being able to access the internet at the touch of a button. Fast forward 19 years later, the debut of the iPhone does not compare to the technology we have access to now. The advancement of portable devices such as laptops, tablets, phones, has shifted the way audiences consume media.
To understand how audiences consume media, advertisers look that the ratings calculated by data companies such as Nielson. Nielson ratings are percentages calculated based on their population sample. With the way audiences are now consuming media, ratings are starting to become less relevant. For producers, a program’s ratings can tell you if they are going to be renewed for another season or not. For advertisers, a program’s ratings can measure how many viewers have seen their ad. The development of streaming sites has made it harder for advertisers to reach their target audience and rely less on a program's ratings since a cable subscription is no longer needed to watch the latest and greatest shows. Streaming platforms such as Hulu and Netflix have allowed television audiences to cut the cord and get rid of their cable subscription altogether. The rise of streaming platforms has allowed viewers who do not have cable subscriptions to access broadcast shows as well as allow its users to start and stop watching at their convenience. An issue that companies that advertise on television face are that if their target audience decides to later stream their program instead of watching it live the advertisements, if any, are different based on the platform. Ratings are still considered to be prominent amongst advertisers to gather their research however as streaming sites continue to develop they need to make note of what platform the audience is using and watch it as it develops over time. 9-1-1 producer, Ryan Murphy tells E! News that “I never feel that overnight ratings on anything tell the story … I don’t watch live television. In my life, I don’t do that. I watch things in delayed viewing” (Dos Santos). From an advertising perspective, Murphy illustrates that overnight ratings are not the only ratings that a company should be looking at. To understand the full potential of the advertisement reach, advertisers need to continue to track the ratings over time.
While I do believe that ratings do not matter as much as they used to, Nielsen does do a great job of helping companies calculate how many viewers their ads have reached. I think ratings are the best way to calculate audience consumption when dealing with television advertisements. To see if advertisers have reached their target audience and the number of viewers they should use Nielsen ratings but also understand the benefits of time placement and when and where to invest. While some companies may not be able to afford it, a key program to advertise on would be the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is not only known for the football game or half-time show but the commercials as well. The Super Bowl is one of the only majorly watched events that people will not fast forward through the commercials. Additionally, since the Super Bowl is exclusive to one network, advertisers will be able to understand the ratings fully without taking into consideration other streaming sites. As technology advances and streaming continues to dominate traditional media it is up to data companies such as Nielsen to figure out how to measure how many people are watching a tv show online and traditionally while still keeping an advertiser in mind.
Work Cited: Dos Santos, Kristin. “Do TV Ratings Even Matter Any More?” E! Online, E! News, 21 Mar. 2018, www.eonline.com/news/922015/do-ratings-still-matter-ryan-murphy-argues-there-are-no-rules-any-more.
Mirabelli, Gabriella. “Consumer Insights on the Digital & Video Landscape.” The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Dec. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com//sites/default/files/custom2/Consumer%20Insights%20on%20the%20Digital%20%26%20Video%20Landscape.pdf.
Mitovich, Matt Webb. “Yes, Broadcast-TV Ratings Are Down. No, the Sky Isn't Falling - Here's Why.” TVLine, 15 Oct. 2019, tvline.com/2019/10/15/tv-ratings-down-ad-revenue-up/.
Roxborough, Scott. “Indie Execs Say Content Is No Longer King - Data Is.” The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Nov. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/indie-execs-say-content-is-no-longer-king-data-is-1253623?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR%27s%2BToday%2Bin%2BEntertainment_2019-11-09%2B07%3A00%3A00_aweprin&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie.
Alexis Tinney Given the changes in how audiences consume media, ratings are becoming less and less important. In the past, ratings would come out the morning after a show and be available to anyone interested. Ratings still do come out each morning but are then followed by a ton of other data: three-day, seven-day, multiplatform, commercial (Porter). We are given so much new data that seems to be taking the focus off ratings. Grey’s Anatomy, for example, is getting huge bumps from digital platforms and longer measurement of delayed viewing. After about seven weeks into the new season of Grey’s Anatomy rating information about the season are still trickling in (Porter). The biggest problem with ratings is that people consume media differently now than in the past. Before companies such as Netflix or Hulu launched people didn’t have the ability to watch new episodes until the next day or even week. If you wanted to watch any show you had to make sure you were home in time to watch it air. Since streaming is now taking over the world, it becomes hard to get accurate ratings just overnight. The majority of people now wait to binge-watch shows like Grey's Anatomy when the full season is available to stream. The top twenty entertainment shows in the 18-49 demographic averaged a 2.15 rating after 7 days which is a gain of 0.89 over their same-day starting points. After just four more weeks of delayed viewing added 0.22 on average (Porter). I don’t believe ratings are completely irrelevant, but we are constantly learning new ways to find more accurate numbers. Over the last few years, alternate ways to track media consumption have been developed. With ratings evolving and changing so quickly, it’s important to stay up to date with new trends. The way rates are set now, TV networks, from CBS to the Food Network, rely on Nielsen’s count of the number of people between the ages of 18 and 49 who watch TV ads either live or up to three days later (Steinberg). Nielsen ratings are able to track the number of viewers who actually watch commercials, which is arguably the most important number. Nielsen plays an important role in engagement. It measures the social engagement around TV shows and counts the number of posts about a given episode. The biggest problem with Nielsen’s ratings is that they do not currently include streaming audiences. Although it can measure the audience for streaming shows, Netflix and other streaming services have disputed the rating number since they don’t take into account viewing on other devices (Porter). Nielsen is planning to include out-of-home viewing in these numbers from now on, which means they will be released midday as opposed to the morning after. Overall, each network has its own specific way of calculating views and ratings but it’s not always the most accurate.
Porter, Rick. “TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data.” The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Jan. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591.
Porter, Rick. “TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits.” The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Dec. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608.
Steinberg, Brian. “TV Industry Struggles to Agree on Ratings Innovation.” Variety, 11 April 2017, https://variety.com/2017/tv/features/nielsen-total-content-ratings-1202027752/.
The significance of tv ratings has changed a lot over the years. Before the boom of streaming services, tv ratings had a bigger say in the tv world. However, streaming services have completely changed how was consume tv and movies which has had a major effect on ratings. An article from the Hollywood reporter explained that devices such as a roku or firestick, account for 20% of viewings, which would suggest that the Nielsen ratings is not truly accurate anymore. Many major tv outlets have started to take this into account and have noticed a major increase in ratings when including their multiplatform numbers. An example from the Hollywood reporter discussed,” …Grey’s Anatomy, which grows from 2.9 rating in adults 18-49 and 10.53 million viewers after 35 days of TV viewings to a 6.45 rating in the demo and 16.6 million viewers with digital included”(Hollywood reporter, TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits). TV ratings still seem to matter to a certain degree in my opinion, but only if you consider other platforms that viewers are using to watch these shows because without those numbers, the ratings are dramatically different. Ratings still matter but it’s how we track them that matters more. If we look at tv ratings on the Nielsen scale, it isn’t going to give us accurate idea but if we came up with some alternatives, they could still be very beneficial.
There are a few alternatives to tracking tv ratings that would be very useful for the future of tv ratings. In an article from the Hollywood reporter, they discuss 6 substitutions. Even Nielsen created two updated tools to produce more accurate ratings. This was ultimately very necessary because otherwise, it would’ve been the end for Nielsen ratings. The first one was a company that CNBC has shifted to known as Cogent. This company will track media consumption through research using weekly web survey of about 1200 people. The second option was to use Rentrak TV which uses data collected from a set-top box. The only down-side to their method is that they can’t distinguish who is watching the show. CLYPD is another device used to track ratings which is mostly to collect information from surveys and tv ratings to create a more concise rating. The next alternative tv rating would be the Nielsen Catalina. The article explains how Nielsen partnered with numerous research companies to help keep track of ratings by tracking purchases made by loyalty shopping cards. There is also the Nielsen Buyer Insights which is similar to Nielsen Catalina, however they use data from credit and debit cards rather than loyalty cards. The final alternative would be the Kantar Shopcom which specifically tracks purchases in packaged goods, electronics, apparel, sporting goods and auto. All of these tools have different but potentially great approaches to fix this issue of tracking tv ratings. As our tv consumption changes, it’s only fitting that the data collected on our tv intake changes with it.
Works Cited
Guthrie, Marisa. “The Battle to Build a Better TV Ratings System: 6 Alternative Ways to Measure Viewing.” The Hollywood Reporter, 12 May 2015, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/battle-build-a-better-tv-794420. Porter, Rick. “TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data.” The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Jan. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591. Porter, Rick. “TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits.” The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Dec. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608.
Allison Roethke With the changes in how audiences consume media, it is hard to track how and where they are consuming their media from. It’s hard to track media consumption when people are getting their shows from all different platforms besides cable. According to The Hollywood Reporter, there has been an escalating gap between prime time TV and the Super Bowl. But could this be because those who are viewing the prime time TV shows are an older audience and tune in for their show each day at a certain time? Could it be that those watching the Super Bowl are streaming from another platform?
The Hollywood Reporter also reports that the Super Bowl has had a relatively constant audience each year, but the rest of the television is scarcely recognizable from what it used to be. For the past decade, the Super Bowl has received an average of 108 million viewers. Traditionally the audience watching the Super Bowl has tuned in on cable TV. According to Nielsen’s statistics, “those who watch more than 6 minutes is typically up 40 percent higher than the average audience per minute.”
The Hollywood Reporter predicated “that over 60 percent of the TV-watching public will be watching the Super Bowl.” Which has remained pretty consistent. Variety reported that there were a total of 102 million viewers for this years Super Bowl. Last year, when the New England Patriots played the Los Angeles Rams, they received the lowest total viewers in a decade with 100.7 million. The year before when the Eagles played the Patriots, they received 103.4 million total. So, there has been an increased from last year but still not up to what it was in 2018. The increase could have been due to the entertainment during halftime. Jennifer Lopez and Shakira were unbelievable.
Nielsen’s ratings are focused on 40 thousand homes and 100 thousand people. That is their representative of the population of a whole. Ratings are percentages that measure of portion of a given group. Shares are classified as the percent of the given group that watch a show/ are tuned in at a certain time to a certain program. These are two types of statistics that Nielsen uses because streaming ratings aren’t really a thing. Nielsen does measures who are streaming shows but they don’t take account for those watching on other devices. So it’s hard to track actual numbers when not all of the data is being collected. Nielsen’s data has shown us that there has been a huge shift in viewing habits because of how many platforms we now have accessibility to. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “On average, multi-platform viewing boosted viewership by 24.5 percent over the TV only 35-day ratings for the 12 shows below where digital data is available. The jump was even bigger among adults 18-49, where digital added 59 percent over the TV-only ratings.” Shows like This Is Us, The Masked Singer, and Grey’s Anatomy boost viewership by being viewed on multiple platforms.
Herbert, G. (2020, February 3). How many people watched the Super Bowl? 2020 ratings up from last year. Retrieved from https://www.syracuse.com/sports/2020/02/2020-super-bowl-ratings-102-million-viewers-up-from-last-year.html
Porter, R. (2019, December 20). TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608
Porter, R. (2020, January 3). TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591
I find it fascinating how drastic and quick consuming media has changed over the past decade. I do not think ratings matter as much today as they had a decade or two ago to a certain extent. There is one reason why they still might mean more now and that is because of advertisements and commercials. Adam Jacobson believes that there is, “an increased importance of live linier TV ratings.” (Jacobson, 2019) Thought the article, Jacobson explains that since advertising is more expensive than ever; It is important for companies to pick and choose where they think they will get the best exposure to the right audience and not drop hundreds of thousands, often millions of dollars, on commercials that no one would care for or not get the exposure they would have hoped for. For example, Rick Porter wrote that ratings essentially measure the portion of any given group in a percentage, so Just for Men’s hair products would rather spend their money on advertisements during a hockey game rather than a beauty pageant. This is because Just for Men’s would reach their target audience in much larger numbers. Porter also opened my eyes to something that I never even thought of regarding TV Streaming services ratings. He wrote that they, “Are not really a thing. Nielsen does measure the audience for streaming shows, but Netflix and other platforms have disputed the ratings service's numbers as they don't take into account viewing on other devices.” (Porter, 2019) So with the way that consumers are moving away from cable and onto streaming services, it makes me question will ratings even be relevant in a decade? The way that the past decade has changed the way we use TV, I wouldn’t doubt that ratings, if stayed as irrelevant to streaming services, would be obsolete. A way to not allow this to happen would be to perfect a system that can keep track of streaming off other devices, this does not seem like a far-fetched idea at all and could see this happening in the near future.
Let’s say that ratings and all that good stuff aren’t relevant in 10 years, there would have to be an alternative way to track media consumption. There are already certain ways that views are being looked at that aren’t through the traditional ways that companies like Nielsen do. As mentioned above, companies such as Nielsen are unable to track multi-platform views. Can having a system to track multi-platform views really change the numbers that drastically? I would have guessed no way! I would have been wrong, according to Rick Porter in a separate article, “ABC, Fox and NBC have released their multi-platform figures for premiere week, and they show season and series premieres doubling, tripling and even quadrupling their same-day numbers.” (Porter, 2019) After some minimal side research, my understanding of these systems that track multi-platform views and ratings aren’t as accurate as the industry would like it be. Hopefully this new way of collecting ratings and track media consumption can save ratings before too many think they are irrelevant.
Works Cited:
Jacobson, Adam, et al. “Do Ratings Matter to Advertisers?” Radio & Television Business Report, 6 June 2019, www.rbr.com/do-ratings-matter-to-advertisers/.
Porter, Rick. “TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data.” The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Jan. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591.
Porter, Rick. “TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits.” The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Dec. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608.
Over the last few weeks we have seen the spiraling impacts of COVID-19. Celebrities and brands are using this time to connect more with their fans and also promote safe social distancing practices While there have been man struggles for physical businesses, online platforms have been receiving a lot more attention. Hollywood Reporter wrote an article about how Esports are gaining prominence during this time, because regular sports are not being played. The article says, “With the NBA, NHL, MLB and NFL all currently inactive, virtual sports tournaments now stand alone in a vacant market, and organizations are taking advantage as deal making heats up and marquee broadcast networks welcome live competitive content” (Shanley, 2020). Esports have had a previous presence in the media, but this has been quickly increasing since this is fans only option. Even sports like NASCAR have turned to this option and have seen success. Nielsen ratings showed that there were almost one million viewers tuning in. From all of this, Hollywood Reporter also predicts that the YouTube market is expected to grow. Similarly, Facebook has become a popular news hub for social media users. The New York Times wrote an article about this increase in use and said, “As of Thursday, more than half the articles being consumed on Facebook in the United States were related to the coronavirus…” (Roose & Dance, 2020). Facebook offers other communication tools like instant messaging and video calling that have become very useful for its users. Of course, with this increase in news reading on the site, there is a concern about legitimacy, but it has been reported that postings and comments throughout the Facebook community have been monitored. CNBC talks about the “stay-at-home economy” and how it is becoming a part of more people’s lives. With most schools and companies moving to working online, Zoom has really become a popular resource. This could have a lasting effect on the company as they will see a steady increase in use until this pandemic ends. Similarly, in the stay-at-home economy, larger stores like Walmart are able to continue their business because people can order online for delivery. The CNBC article also brings up the point of people spending more time indoors saying, “Additionally, as people both young and old limit their time outside the house, at-home entertainment usage will balloon” (Clifford, 2020). As expected, Netflix is still reining on top since users have even more time to stream.
TylerTheTyler_. (2020, March 19). Jim Cramer says these companies can thrive during and after coronavirus pandemic. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/19/jim-cramer-these-companies-can-win-during-and-after-coronavirus-crisis.html
Roose, K., & X, G. J. (2020, March 23). The Coronavirus Revives Facebook as a News Powerhouse. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/technology/coronavirus-facebook-news.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
Shanley, P. (2020, April 1). Esports Gain Prominence As Major Leagues Go Dark. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/esports-gain-prominence-as-major-leagues-go-dark-1287117?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR's Today in Entertainment_2020-03-31 07:15:00_aweprin&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie
Media changes very frequently making it imperative to consider what people are actually looking at and using. It is pretty noticeable that people are not viewing as much television as they did in the past. This makes it hard to really look into ratings and decide if they even matter. Of course, we can look at other ways in order to track media consumption.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that comes to mind when thinking about ratings to many people, especially within older generations is Nielsen Media Research (NMR). This company helps to track television, cable, and advertisements. NMR though within this quickly evolving industry of media is not always the most thought about when considering all forms of media consumption.
As of right now, I do believe that television ratings do matter but not to the extent that they have in the past; simply because of the different forms of media that are present today. “As long as revenue from advertisers remains part of the network TV business model, ratings will matter.” (Adalian, 2017) We have to look at the bigger picture here, even those “big dogs” such as Disney and CBS have had a pretty large decrease in viewers within the past few years making it hard to rely on commercials in order to succeed.
I believe that it is important to look at how many subscribers there are on streaming services currently in order to see which platform is most successful. This will help competitors and the industry decide what that company is doing well or what can be improved upon within the future. Netflix is a great example to look at when considering the area to improve within the streaming industry. They have lost a significant number of subscribers within the past year, whereas their competitors have gained such as Disney and Apple.
Currently, it is pretty easy to track any media consumption even as a user yourself. You can use social media tracking tools such as Hootsuite, Google Analytics, and even Analytics within most social media apps to see how your specific platform is doing for yourself or your company.
Essentially, ratings are not going anywhere anytime soon, in fact, ratings are going to help large media conglomerates and even those smaller ones such as streaming services help to improve their companies. Now more than ever there are so many different ways in which large companies can look into data and measure their audience. Third-party measurements, streaming, social, multiplatform, live, and even binge-watching are just a few to name when considering ratings. Regarding ratings as a whole, media is going nowhere so ratings are always going to be important it is just not going to be done the same way as traditional media has done in the past.
Work Cited:
ReplyDeleteAdalian, J. (2017, May 17). TV Ratings Are Way Down, but Does It Even Matter Anymore? Retrieved from https://slate.com/culture/2017/05/tv-ratings-are-way-down-but-does-it-even-matter-anymore.html
Szalai, G. (2019, October 30). When Will Netflix Finally End Its Cash Burn? Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/will-netflix-finally-end-cash-burn-1250782?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR's Today in Entertainment_now_2019-10-30 07:15:10_aweprin&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie
Contributors, H. S. W. (2000, July 28). How do television ratings work? Retrieved from https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/question433.htm
Porter, R. (2020, January 3). TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591
Katerina Bressette
ReplyDeleteAs technology continues to progress and advance, so does the way we view television. We now live in a time where the term “TV” means more than a wire-filled box designed to portray entertainment for the whole family. It is now portable and individualized; a term used to describe content. If how we view television is changing, then how we track, and record media consumption is also changing.
Throughout the beginning decades of TV viewing, entertainment blossomed in the consumer’s eye. More content was being created and new shows were airing Live more and more. To determine how many people were watching these shows and which ones were the most popular, media and broadcasting companies relied on ratings each night. These “overnight metered market ratings” were reported to the companies first thing in the morning and helped to determine which shows were popular amongst the public and which shows should be aired in the future. (Porter) Due to the increased popularity of streaming and video on demand services and a decrease in the viewing of Live TV, these overnight ratings seem to have less accuracy and relevance. Ryan Murphy, a producer, reports to E! News, “You were a winner or a loser overnight, and you knew overnight exactly where you were. And I think that it's not about that anymore. I never feel that overnight ratings on anything tell the story. I feel like it's just the tip of the iceberg.” (Santos) It appears that many media professionals are turning away from using Nielsen ratings to determine show popularity and instead are looking towards data recording over longer periods of time. Each year more and more consumers are watching TV shows and movies from devices other than the traditional TV. Multiplatform viewing has begun to affect how we view overnight ratings because although the overnight ratings might be initially low, after analyzing the multiplatform data over a longer period, the numbers show a different result. “On average, multiplatform viewing boosted viewership by 24.5 percent over the TV only 35-day ratings.” (Porter) New technologies and ways of viewing content are causing media professionals to look beneath the surface, to more long-term data and statistics from different devices in order to really understand viewing habits and television show popularity. Looking towards data results rather than ratings might also be more influential when determining what shows to produce to ultimately gain the most viewers. With a myriad of streaming services coming into play over the next couple of years, creating original content is becoming a must for media conglomerates who are trying to differentiate themselves within the industry. But creating original content might not be enough according to Christian Parkes, chief marketing officer at Neon, “‘Is content still king? I'd say data is king,’ he said. ‘If you aren't relying heavily on it, you are going to lose.’” (Roxborough) As Gen Z continues to grow older, more and more people will be watching streaming services or VOD rather than Live TV and cable. Ratings continue to exist and are influential for now due to the majority of Baby Boomers still watching “traditional” television. Based on the progression of technology and multiplatform viewing, ratings may not be important to producers, but rather data and statistics may be the future for media consumption tracking.
Katerina Bressette
DeleteWorks Cited
Porter, Rick. “TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data.” The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Jan. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591.
Porter, Rick. “TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits.” The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Dec. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608.
Roxborough, Scott. “Indie Execs Say Content Is No Longer King - Data Is.” The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Nov. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/indie-execs-say-content-is-no-longer-king-data-is-1253623?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR%27s%2BToday%2Bin%2BEntertainment_2019-11-09%2B07%3A00%3A00_aweprin&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie.
Santos, Kristin Dos. “Do TV Ratings Even Matter Any More?” E! Online, E! News, 21 Mar. 2018, www.eonline.com/news/922015/do-ratings-still-matter-ryan-murphy-argues-there-are-no-rules-any-more.
Anthony Galler
ReplyDeleteGiven the changes in how audiences consume media, I’d argue that ratings are not as significant as they once were. Ratings are not completely useless, but the big difference is that ratings no longer provide the most precise data for tracking audiences. Until the early 2000s, network executives, reporters and others interested in the previous night's audience had to make a phone call to get them (Porter, Oct 2019), Nielsen would report the ratings from the previous night’s shows, and those numbers were then available to anyone wanting to know how a show performed (Porter, Oct 2019). However, Nielsen does not track the ratings for just that one sole period of time. Technically, they can track viewership for basically however long they want to after a show airs the first time. However, in many cases there is not a considerable difference in the number of viewers for a program after the initial broadcast. This becomes arguably the biggest limitation for the Nielsen ratings when tracking viewership. Nielsen does not currently track multi-platform viewing, which reveals a big shift in viewing habits (Porter, Nov 2019). Among the top 20 shows where digital ratings figures are available, multi-platform viewing can account for over a third of the total rating in the 18-49 demographic (Porter, Nov 2019). What this data tells us is that the digital audience is clearly growing. Some programming will get more viewers this way than on-air showings, but tracking these numbers is sometimes a challenging task.
There are other ways to track media consumption which we now utilize as an additional measurement. One of these methods is through streaming ratings. In 2017, Nielsen began tracking Netflix viewing habits for the first time. The downside being that Netflix often disagrees with what Nielsen is reporting. One Netflix spokesperson at the time said that Nielsen’s data “is not accurate, not even close, and does not reflect the viewing” [of its’ shows] (Burch, 2019). An additional method of measurement is third-party measurements. Companies measure things like out-of-home viewing or binge viewing, but they can rely on users to opt in to sharing data, which can lead to a less representative sample (Porter, Oct 2019). We can also look to a more conversational approach, in the form of social ratings. This measures the social engagement around a show including posts about it, and reach of conversation (Porter, Oct 2019). The drawback to this being that social engagement and conversation does not always equate to high on-air ratings for a show. Nonetheless, a couple of things are certain: A) Streaming services are continuing to gain traction, meaning that the industry could be moving closer to a post-ratings landscape. B) The move away from ratings-based success has shifted the power balance more towards the streaming services than content creators (Burch, 2019). Nielsen’s tv ratings can still be of use in some context, but more information is needed to see the full picture.
Works Cited
Burch, S. (2019, June 27). TV Ratings in 2019: What Counts as a Streaming ‘View’? Retrieved February 1, 2020, from https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/tv-ratings-2019-counts-streaming-185405459.html
Porter, R. (2019, October 5). TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data. Retrieved February 1, 2020, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591
Porter, R. (2019, November 13). TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits. Retrieved February 1, 2020, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608
Lexie Evon
ReplyDeleteWhile there has been a large increase in OTT viewing, many households still subscribe to traditional television. Starting back in the analog days TV, Nielson has been producing nightly ratings for televised programs. Before the early 2000s, these ratings would be available by phone where people who were interested could call in and hear the numbers recited. Today, the ratings are sent out via email. Because of the large shift towards streaming, the data that is being given has also changed. Nielson now provides 3- day, 7- day, multiplatform and commercial data.
The data for ratings may be used differently today than it was used in the past, but the data still does matter.
Hollywood reporter talked about how in today’s media society, content is not the most important factor, the data is. A chief marketing officer for Neon said, “…I would say data is king. If you aren’t relying heavily on it, you are going to lose.” He went on to talk about how in order to get your content across successfully, you have to find a niche audience. Once you have found that audience, you have to create content that you know will satisfy them. But before all of that, the only way you can identify your niche audience is through data.
Multiplatform viewing and the ratings from various platforms show the large shift in viewing habits. This includes data from streaming and digital apps, it can include platforms like Netflix/ Hulu or viewings from the network’s app/ website. It can be hard to track all of the data from the different platforms being used, “A number of companies measure things like out-of-home viewing or binge viewing, but they can rely on users to opt in to sharing data, which can lead to a less representative sample” (Porter, 2019).
I think with the current trends in today’s media, the best way to track consumption is to focus on gathering data starting from streaming services and then working down to traditional television. Nielson does not currently measure streaming audiences, but they do measure social media engagement for different shows. This data can be helpful for streaming services so they can get a more specific idea of what content is getting the most interaction on social media. When we look at something like the streaming wars, we can see that companies like Netflix and Hulu don’t need to worry too much about their ratings. This is a case where collecting data and creating content for those niche audiences is going to help them out. With the increase of cord cutters, traditional television may want to continue to watch ratings, but they can also largely benefit from focusing on data.
References:
DeleteState of OTT. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.comscore.com/Insights/Presentations-and-Whitepapers/2019/State-of-OTT
Roxborough, S. (2019, November 9). Indie Execs Say Content Is No Longer King - Data Is. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/indie-execs-say-content-is-no-longer-king-data-is-1253623?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR's Today in Entertainment_2019-11-09 07:00:00_aweprin&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie
Porter, R. (2020, January 3). TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591
Porter, R. (2019, December 20). TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608
Traditional television ratings are no longer as important as they once were. The broad concept of ratings and viewership, which includes television ratings, is still very important. Traditional television ratings, which are tracked by Nielsen, are becoming less representative of the greater trends. The Hollywood Reporter explains that “Nielsen ratings are calculated based on a sample of 40,000 homes and about 100,000 people” (Porter, TV Long View). Rick Porter adds that this sample is only a small portion of the 120 million homes across the nation with television. In essence, it is an entirely accurate method to evaluate consumption trends. Porter defends the sample by saying it’s larger than a political poll, but there is technology readily available and active that can provide a larger sample size of data. Paula Clancey, Senior Manager of Data Innovation and Insights with Effectv, which is the advertising arm of Comcast, explained that Comcast’s cable boxes are able to track user habits without requiring Nielsen’s assistance. Specifically, she said that Comcast is able to study audience trends based on a sample size of over one million homes. One million homes are definitely more representative of the U.S. population than 40,000 homes. Comcast, which owns NBC, has also begun multiplatform tracking, which measures traditional same-day viewership alongside digital and streaming viewership. It is not alone in this endeavor, however, as ABC, FOX, and CBS have also been tracking multiplatform viewership (Porter, TV Ratings). Porter writes that NBC, ABC, and FOX’s multiplatform figures for premiere week show “season and series premieres doubling, tripling and even quadrupling their same-day numbers — and in a couple cases even doubling their 35-day, TV-only ratings” (Porter, TV Ratings). In essence, if advertisers relied only on data from Nielsen, they would be severely misled. More people are watching these shows than Nielsen ratings would indicate, which would provide advertisers with more eyeballs on their products and services. In turn, networks such as NBC, ABC, and FOX can generate more revenue from selling airtime to advertisers.
ReplyDeleteJosef Adalian of Vulture explains that the decline in television ratings has led to less advertising revenue for cable and broadcast networks (“TV Ratings Are Way Down”). He continues by saying that “since the whole reason ratings exist is to help networks determine how much to charge for ad time, it only follows that the less important ad money becomes, the less all-important those Nielsen numbers are” (Adalian). A revamped rating system that doesn’t rely solely on Nielsen might help networks prove to advertisers that their shows will get their commercials a significant amount of attention. While there are multiple ways for an organization to make money from one of its shows, such as selling the rights to stream a show to Netflix or Hulu, it is difficult to profit off of a show that is drawing poor ratings from Nielsen. Poor ratings can scare away advertisers, which would be detrimental even if a network could find another method to make money from its show. This could impact the livelihood of the people involved with the production of the program, so it is critical that the system in place is accurate.
Ratings and advertising are changing in order to keep up with changing audience trends. Newer forms of tracking and data collection are going to be the way that advertisers reach the audiences that they want to speak to. Nielsen is going to fall behind and become increasingly obsolete unless it can change its narrow scope. Ratings are changing and becoming more complex, but they are still important.
Reilly (2/2)
DeleteWorks Cited
Adalian, Josef. “TV Ratings Are Way Down, But Does It Even Matter?” Vulture, Vulture, 15 May 2017, www.vulture.com/2017/05/tv-ratings-are-way-down-but-does-it-even-matter.html.
Porter, Rick. “TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data.” The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Jan. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591.
Porter, Rick. “TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits.” The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Dec. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608.
Brett Gosselin
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to television data, do we really need things such as the Nielsen ratings? Sure, we see what shows are currently being streamed on a consistent basis week by week. Are we accounting for everything though? Are we accounting for shows that are stream able after they premiere on platforms such as Hulu? When it comes to the ratings system the best example, I can provide is The Monday Night Wrestling wars vs the current Wednesday night wars. If you compare the two you would think that wrestling is dying. In the late 90s WCW and the WWF were at a weekly war to see who would gain more viewership, with it ultimately ending when WCW was shut down in early 2001. A near decade later WWE NXT and AEW are in a similar war but with the data showing that both have lower viewership. So, what is it? Why were the ratings in the 90s so much higher? Is it that people don’t watch wrestling anymore? Look at it like this, I never watch AEW or NXT live but I’m watching both weekly. Thanks to on demand streaming on YouTube TV and Hulu I am able to watch both shows whenever I want.
It’s hard to judge based on Nielsen ratings still. Although they are popular source to use, do they account for shows being recorded or shows being streamed. Lately networks have started to incorporate these two things by accounting for both the live viewership and viewership within a 35-day span across multiple platforms. So, when you read the ratings initially you aren’t getting the full number of viewers until you read the later situation. I feel by incorporating this system we have a better chance of understanding what shows are truly popular. When you look at the graph shown in one of the articles listed you notice that a lot of the numbers tend to double or at least increase over that 35-day period.
With this said though, Is this killing the industry?” "I am frankly terrified of what is going on in the marketplace right now," said Christian Parkes, chief marketing officer at Neon, the specialist distributor that has enjoyed success with impossible-to-categorize films like I, Tonya ($30 million domestic gross) and Bong Joon Ho's Parasite ($7.5 million domestically so far on the way to, Parkes estimates, $10 million-plus).” It’s crazy how so many people are terrified at creating anything new. With success of Marvel studios and all the Disney rereleases, it shows a lot of companies that capitalizing on successful markets is the way to go with making money. I, Tonya was a fantastic film but doesn’t receive the acclaim it should because it wasn’t incredibly popular. Lately it seems the only movies that get any press or break any box office records are a part of the marvel or Star Wars franchise. Data still has a relevancy in today’s society its just taking a different stance. And its possible the reason that original content is currently dying.
Roxborough, S. (2019, November 9). Indie Execs Say Content Is No Longer King - Data Is. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/indie-execs-say-content-is-no-longer-king-data-is-1253623?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR's Today in Entertainment_2019-11-09 07:00:00_aweprin&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie
Porter, R. (2020, January 3). TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591
Porter, R. (2019, December 20). TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608
Adalian, Josef. “TV Ratings Are Way Down, But Does It Even Matter?” Vulture, Vulture, 15 May 2017, www.vulture.com/2017/05/tv-ratings-are-way-down-but-does-it-even-matter.html.
Lisa Ferrara
ReplyDeleteFounded nearly 30 years ago, the internet has played a prominent role in the advancement of technology. The company that has lead the tech world to where it is today can be attributed to Apple. In 2001, Apple released the first iPod allowing users to listen and digitally download their music portably. The iPod introduced a new concept of shopping to users, allowing them to no longer go to a physical store to purchase their music. In 2007, Apple released the first iPhone that allowed users to be able to receive phone calls, text messages, capture pictures while being able to access the internet at the touch of a button. Fast forward 19 years later, the debut of the iPhone does not compare to the technology we have access to now. The advancement of portable devices such as laptops, tablets, phones, has shifted the way audiences consume media.
To understand how audiences consume media, advertisers look that the ratings calculated by data companies such as Nielson. Nielson ratings are percentages calculated based on their population sample. With the way audiences are now consuming media, ratings are starting to become less relevant. For producers, a program’s ratings can tell you if they are going to be renewed for another season or not. For advertisers, a program’s ratings can measure how many viewers have seen their ad. The development of streaming sites has made it harder for advertisers to reach their target audience and rely less on a program's ratings since a cable subscription is no longer needed to watch the latest and greatest shows. Streaming platforms such as Hulu and Netflix have allowed television audiences to cut the cord and get rid of their cable subscription altogether. The rise of streaming platforms has allowed viewers who do not have cable subscriptions to access broadcast shows as well as allow its users to start and stop watching at their convenience. An issue that companies that advertise on television face are that if their target audience decides to later stream their program instead of watching it live the advertisements, if any, are different based on the platform. Ratings are still considered to be prominent amongst advertisers to gather their research however as streaming sites continue to develop they need to make note of what platform the audience is using and watch it as it develops over time. 9-1-1 producer, Ryan Murphy tells E! News that “I never feel that overnight ratings on anything tell the story … I don’t watch live television. In my life, I don’t do that. I watch things in delayed viewing” (Dos Santos). From an advertising perspective, Murphy illustrates that overnight ratings are not the only ratings that a company should be looking at. To understand the full potential of the advertisement reach, advertisers need to continue to track the ratings over time.
Ferrara cont'd
DeleteWhile I do believe that ratings do not matter as much as they used to, Nielsen does do a great job of helping companies calculate how many viewers their ads have reached. I think ratings are the best way to calculate audience consumption when dealing with television advertisements. To see if advertisers have reached their target audience and the number of viewers they should use Nielsen ratings but also understand the benefits of time placement and when and where to invest. While some companies may not be able to afford it, a key program to advertise on would be the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is not only known for the football game or half-time show but the commercials as well. The Super Bowl is one of the only majorly watched events that people will not fast forward through the commercials. Additionally, since the Super Bowl is exclusive to one network, advertisers will be able to understand the ratings fully without taking into consideration other streaming sites. As technology advances and streaming continues to dominate traditional media it is up to data companies such as Nielsen to figure out how to measure how many people are watching a tv show online and traditionally while still keeping an advertiser in mind.
Work Cited:
Dos Santos, Kristin. “Do TV Ratings Even Matter Any More?” E! Online, E! News, 21 Mar. 2018, www.eonline.com/news/922015/do-ratings-still-matter-ryan-murphy-argues-there-are-no-rules-any-more.
Mirabelli, Gabriella. “Consumer Insights on the Digital & Video Landscape.” The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Dec. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com//sites/default/files/custom2/Consumer%20Insights%20on%20the%20Digital%20%26%20Video%20Landscape.pdf.
Mitovich, Matt Webb. “Yes, Broadcast-TV Ratings Are Down. No, the Sky Isn't Falling - Here's Why.” TVLine, 15 Oct. 2019, tvline.com/2019/10/15/tv-ratings-down-ad-revenue-up/.
Roxborough, Scott. “Indie Execs Say Content Is No Longer King - Data Is.” The Hollywood Reporter, 9 Nov. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/indie-execs-say-content-is-no-longer-king-data-is-1253623?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR%27s%2BToday%2Bin%2BEntertainment_2019-11-09%2B07%3A00%3A00_aweprin&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie.
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ReplyDeleteAlexis Tinney
ReplyDeleteGiven the changes in how audiences consume media, ratings are becoming less and less important. In the past, ratings would come out the morning after a show and be available to anyone interested. Ratings still do come out each morning but are then followed by a ton of other data: three-day, seven-day, multiplatform, commercial (Porter). We are given so much new data that seems to be taking the focus off ratings. Grey’s Anatomy, for example, is getting huge bumps from digital platforms and longer measurement of delayed viewing. After about seven weeks into the new season of Grey’s Anatomy rating information about the season are still trickling in (Porter). The biggest problem with ratings is that people consume media differently now than in the past. Before companies such as Netflix or Hulu launched people didn’t have the ability to watch new episodes until the next day or even week. If you wanted to watch any show you had to make sure you were home in time to watch it air. Since streaming is now taking over the world, it becomes hard to get accurate ratings just overnight. The majority of people now wait to binge-watch shows like Grey's Anatomy when the full season is available to stream. The top twenty entertainment shows in the 18-49 demographic averaged a 2.15 rating after 7 days which is a gain of 0.89 over their same-day starting points. After just four more weeks of delayed viewing added 0.22 on average (Porter). I don’t believe ratings are completely irrelevant, but we are constantly learning new ways to find more accurate numbers.
Over the last few years, alternate ways to track media consumption have been developed. With ratings evolving and changing so quickly, it’s important to stay up to date with new trends. The way rates are set now, TV networks, from CBS to the Food Network, rely on Nielsen’s count of the number of people between the ages of 18 and 49 who watch TV ads either live or up to three days later (Steinberg). Nielsen ratings are able to track the number of viewers who actually watch commercials, which is arguably the most important number. Nielsen plays an important role in engagement. It measures the social engagement around TV shows and counts the number of posts about a given episode. The biggest problem with Nielsen’s ratings is that they do not currently include streaming audiences. Although it can measure the audience for streaming shows, Netflix and other streaming services have disputed the rating number since they don’t take into account viewing on other devices (Porter). Nielsen is planning to include out-of-home viewing in these numbers from now on, which means they will be released midday as opposed to the morning after. Overall, each network has its own specific way of calculating views and ratings but it’s not always the most accurate.
Alexis Tinney (2/2) Works Cited
ReplyDeletePorter, Rick. “TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data.” The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Jan. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591.
Porter, Rick. “TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits.” The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Dec. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608.
Steinberg, Brian. “TV Industry Struggles to Agree on Ratings Innovation.” Variety, 11 April 2017, https://variety.com/2017/tv/features/nielsen-total-content-ratings-1202027752/.
Kayla Gaudet
ReplyDeleteThe significance of tv ratings has changed a lot over the years. Before the boom of streaming services, tv ratings had a bigger say in the tv world. However, streaming services have completely changed how was consume tv and movies which has had a major effect on ratings. An article from the Hollywood reporter explained that devices such as a roku or firestick, account for 20% of viewings, which would suggest that the Nielsen ratings is not truly accurate anymore. Many major tv outlets have started to take this into account and have noticed a major increase in ratings when including their multiplatform numbers. An example from the Hollywood reporter discussed,” …Grey’s Anatomy, which grows from 2.9 rating in adults 18-49 and 10.53 million viewers after 35 days of TV viewings to a 6.45 rating in the demo and 16.6 million viewers with digital included”(Hollywood reporter, TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits). TV ratings still seem to matter to a certain degree in my opinion, but only if you consider other platforms that viewers are using to watch these shows because without those numbers, the ratings are dramatically different. Ratings still matter but it’s how we track them that matters more. If we look at tv ratings on the Nielsen scale, it isn’t going to give us accurate idea but if we came up with some alternatives, they could still be very beneficial.
There are a few alternatives to tracking tv ratings that would be very useful for the future of tv ratings. In an article from the Hollywood reporter, they discuss 6 substitutions. Even Nielsen created two updated tools to produce more accurate ratings. This was ultimately very necessary because otherwise, it would’ve been the end for Nielsen ratings. The first one was a company that CNBC has shifted to known as Cogent. This company will track media consumption through research using weekly web survey of about 1200 people. The second option was to use Rentrak TV which uses data collected from a set-top box. The only down-side to their method is that they can’t distinguish who is watching the show. CLYPD is another device used to track ratings which is mostly to collect information from surveys and tv ratings to create a more concise rating. The next alternative tv rating would be the Nielsen Catalina. The article explains how Nielsen partnered with numerous research companies to help keep track of ratings by tracking purchases made by loyalty shopping cards. There is also the Nielsen Buyer Insights which is similar to Nielsen Catalina, however they use data from credit and debit cards rather than loyalty cards. The final alternative would be the Kantar Shopcom which specifically tracks purchases in packaged goods, electronics, apparel, sporting goods and auto. All of these tools have different but potentially great approaches to fix this issue of tracking tv ratings. As our tv consumption changes, it’s only fitting that the data collected on our tv intake changes with it.
Works Cited
Guthrie, Marisa. “The Battle to Build a Better TV Ratings System: 6 Alternative Ways to Measure Viewing.” The Hollywood Reporter, 12 May 2015, www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/battle-build-a-better-tv-794420.
Porter, Rick. “TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data.” The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Jan. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591.
Porter, Rick. “TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits.” The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Dec. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608.
Allison Roethke
ReplyDeleteWith the changes in how audiences consume media, it is hard to track how and where they are consuming their media from. It’s hard to track media consumption when people are getting their shows from all different platforms besides cable. According to The Hollywood Reporter, there has been an escalating gap between prime time TV and the Super Bowl. But could this be because those who are viewing the prime time TV shows are an older audience and tune in for their show each day at a certain time? Could it be that those watching the Super Bowl are streaming from another platform?
The Hollywood Reporter also reports that the Super Bowl has had a relatively constant audience each year, but the rest of the television is scarcely recognizable from what it used to be. For the past decade, the Super Bowl has received an average of 108 million viewers. Traditionally the audience watching the Super Bowl has tuned in on cable TV. According to Nielsen’s statistics, “those who watch more than 6 minutes is typically up 40 percent higher than the average audience per minute.”
The Hollywood Reporter predicated “that over 60 percent of the TV-watching public will be watching the Super Bowl.” Which has remained pretty consistent. Variety reported that there were a total of 102 million viewers for this years Super Bowl. Last year, when the New England Patriots played the Los Angeles Rams, they received the lowest total viewers in a decade with 100.7 million. The year before when the Eagles played the Patriots, they received 103.4 million total. So, there has been an increased from last year but still not up to what it was in 2018. The increase could have been due to the entertainment during halftime. Jennifer Lopez and Shakira were unbelievable.
Nielsen’s ratings are focused on 40 thousand homes and 100 thousand people. That is their representative of the population of a whole. Ratings are percentages that measure of portion of a given group. Shares are classified as the percent of the given group that watch a show/ are tuned in at a certain time to a certain program. These are two types of statistics that Nielsen uses because streaming ratings aren’t really a thing. Nielsen does measures who are streaming shows but they don’t take account for those watching on other devices. So it’s hard to track actual numbers when not all of the data is being collected. Nielsen’s data has shown us that there has been a huge shift in viewing habits because of how many platforms we now have accessibility to. According to The Hollywood Reporter, “On average, multi-platform viewing boosted viewership by 24.5 percent over the TV only 35-day ratings for the 12 shows below where digital data is available. The jump was even bigger among adults 18-49, where digital added 59 percent over the TV-only ratings.” Shows like This Is Us, The Masked Singer, and Grey’s Anatomy boost viewership by being viewed on multiple platforms.
Herbert, G. (2020, February 3). How many people watched the Super Bowl? 2020 ratings up from last year. Retrieved from https://www.syracuse.com/sports/2020/02/2020-super-bowl-ratings-102-million-viewers-up-from-last-year.html
Porter, R. (2019, December 20). TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608
Porter, R. (2020, January 3). TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data. Retrieved from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591
I find it fascinating how drastic and quick consuming media has changed over the past decade. I do not think ratings matter as much today as they had a decade or two ago to a certain extent. There is one reason why they still might mean more now and that is because of advertisements and commercials. Adam Jacobson believes that there is, “an increased importance of live linier TV ratings.” (Jacobson, 2019) Thought the article, Jacobson explains that since advertising is more expensive than ever; It is important for companies to pick and choose where they think they will get the best exposure to the right audience and not drop hundreds of thousands, often millions of dollars, on commercials that no one would care for or not get the exposure they would have hoped for. For example, Rick Porter wrote that ratings essentially measure the portion of any given group in a percentage, so Just for Men’s hair products would rather spend their money on advertisements during a hockey game rather than a beauty pageant. This is because Just for Men’s would reach their target audience in much larger numbers. Porter also opened my eyes to something that I never even thought of regarding TV Streaming services ratings. He wrote that they, “Are not really a thing. Nielsen does measure the audience for streaming shows, but Netflix and other platforms have disputed the ratings service's numbers as they don't take into account viewing on other devices.” (Porter, 2019) So with the way that consumers are moving away from cable and onto streaming services, it makes me question will ratings even be relevant in a decade? The way that the past decade has changed the way we use TV, I wouldn’t doubt that ratings, if stayed as irrelevant to streaming services, would be obsolete. A way to not allow this to happen would be to perfect a system that can keep track of streaming off other devices, this does not seem like a far-fetched idea at all and could see this happening in the near future.
ReplyDeleteLet’s say that ratings and all that good stuff aren’t relevant in 10 years, there would have to be an alternative way to track media consumption. There are already certain ways that views are being looked at that aren’t through the traditional ways that companies like Nielsen do. As mentioned above, companies such as Nielsen are unable to track multi-platform views. Can having a system to track multi-platform views really change the numbers that drastically? I would have guessed no way! I would have been wrong, according to Rick Porter in a separate article, “ABC, Fox and NBC have released their multi-platform figures for premiere week, and they show season and series premieres doubling, tripling and even quadrupling their same-day numbers.” (Porter, 2019) After some minimal side research, my understanding of these systems that track multi-platform views and ratings aren’t as accurate as the industry would like it be. Hopefully this new way of collecting ratings and track media consumption can save ratings before too many think they are irrelevant.
Works Cited:
Jacobson, Adam, et al. “Do Ratings Matter to Advertisers?” Radio & Television Business Report, 6 June 2019, www.rbr.com/do-ratings-matter-to-advertisers/.
Porter, Rick. “TV Long View: A Guide to the Ever-Expanding World of Ratings Data.” The Hollywood Reporter, 3 Jan. 2020, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/tv-ratings-explained-a-guide-what-data-all-means-1245591.
Porter, Rick. “TV Ratings: Multiplatform Data Shows Big Shift in Viewing Habits.” The Hollywood Reporter, 20 Dec. 2019, www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-feed/multi-platform-ratings-data-shows-big-shift-viewing-habits-1254608.
Over the last few weeks we have seen the spiraling impacts of COVID-19. Celebrities and brands are using this time to connect more with their fans and also promote safe social distancing practices While there have been man struggles for physical businesses, online platforms have been receiving a lot more attention. Hollywood Reporter wrote an article about how Esports are gaining prominence during this time, because regular sports are not being played. The article says, “With the NBA, NHL, MLB and NFL all currently inactive, virtual sports tournaments now stand alone in a vacant market, and organizations are taking advantage as deal making heats up and marquee broadcast networks welcome live competitive content” (Shanley, 2020). Esports have had a previous presence in the media, but this has been quickly increasing since this is fans only option. Even sports like NASCAR have turned to this option and have seen success. Nielsen ratings showed that there were almost one million viewers tuning in. From all of this, Hollywood Reporter also predicts that the YouTube market is expected to grow.
ReplyDeleteSimilarly, Facebook has become a popular news hub for social media users. The New York Times wrote an article about this increase in use and said, “As of Thursday, more than half the articles being consumed on Facebook in the United States were related to the coronavirus…” (Roose & Dance, 2020). Facebook offers other communication tools like instant messaging and video calling that have become very useful for its users. Of course, with this increase in news reading on the site, there is a concern about legitimacy, but it has been reported that postings and comments throughout the Facebook community have been monitored.
CNBC talks about the “stay-at-home economy” and how it is becoming a part of more people’s lives. With most schools and companies moving to working online, Zoom has really become a popular resource. This could have a lasting effect on the company as they will see a steady increase in use until this pandemic ends. Similarly, in the stay-at-home economy, larger stores like Walmart are able to continue their business because people can order online for delivery. The CNBC article also brings up the point of people spending more time indoors saying, “Additionally, as people both young and old limit their time outside the house, at-home entertainment usage will balloon” (Clifford, 2020). As expected, Netflix is still reining on top since users have even more time to stream.
TylerTheTyler_. (2020, March 19). Jim Cramer says these companies can thrive during and after coronavirus pandemic. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/19/jim-cramer-these-companies-can-win-during-and-after-coronavirus-crisis.html
DeleteRoose, K., & X, G. J. (2020, March 23). The Coronavirus Revives Facebook as a News Powerhouse. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/23/technology/coronavirus-facebook-news.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
Shanley, P. (2020, April 1). Esports Gain Prominence As Major Leagues Go Dark. Retrieved April 8, 2020, from https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/esports-gain-prominence-as-major-leagues-go-dark-1287117?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=THR's Today in Entertainment_2020-03-31 07:15:00_aweprin&utm_term=hollywoodreporter_tie