Make it or Break it

Media lives and dies by its audience.

Media is all connected and influences each other. But audiences make it or break it

Audiences "make or break it" for media. In all forms.

Culture's Influence

 Without an audience media wouldn't exist or have the impact that it does in daily life. I'll be completely honest, I really wasn't sure what media measurements were prior to researching it and I never thought about how crucial ratings are to media's existence. I think the biggest challenge today for media is adapting to how consumers view or utilize the content. For example, it's much more common in today's culture to watch TV from a mobile phone or the internet than from an actual television screen. That changes ratings and how ratings are measured. For the purpose of this blog I'm going to focus mainly on television measurements.

Television (Nielson Media Research)

Network television viewings are managed by the Nielson Media Research measurement service. They use a people meter; a meter that is attached to about 5,000 homes across the country, every time someone tunes into a program it's measured and tells the network. This whole idea of being "measured" is crazy. It's like a whole new world I never knew existed! According to the Strategic Media Decisions textbook 2nd edition, the findings from the meters are used to project program ratings, audience size and characteristics for network shows. According to the textbook there has been some controversy with Nielson and their practices, evidence has shown that their ratings measure programs and not commercials. The whole point is for advertising commercials to be seen and truthfully how many people really sit and watch commercials? (unless it's Super Bowl Sunday!) The textbook also states that advertisers spent between $60 and $70 billion on television ads alone. Quite a bit of money for commercials! Personally, I know I am not one to watch commercials, I change the channel as soon as an ad shows up. 

Problems?

The textbook mentions some issues that Nielson has with their measurements and the impact of them. Truthfully, I think there are some good points that get brought up. (all of these points come from the textbook which was published in 2008 so these issues are pulled from that year)

1) In 2008, Nielson was making some changes in how they used their meters, every change that is made in how viewings are measured has a great impact. It can increase ratings or decrease them. This begs the question, can a measurement company "play" or "tweak" the viewings to their benefit so they can spend more money on advertising? How reliable are the ratings? 

2) In some cases, it's programs that are rated not commercials. The commercials is what is advertised not the actual network show. People (like myself) are more than capable of tuning into their program and as soon as a commercial comes on they change the channel. But because of how Nielson measures the ratings the meters count when a remote clicks into a channel even if it's when the program is on. Not the commercial. This leads to another question, are advertisers really utilizing their money wisely on where they place ads?

I don't have answers to these questions but they're very thought provoking about how reliable the measurements truly are. I just thought it was interesting and definitely made me think beyond just retaining information! I also think it can help us get more creative in how we advertise and where commercials are placed! 

Changing Times

I think it's interesting to also consider the changing times that we live in now as it relates to media. According to a study on Nielson's website they show this image which states that only 50% of viewers actually view programs from a television. 30% use a computer or a mobile device, 9% use mobile and 11% watch TV and use mobile. Half only watch TV from their homes. I think that definitely influences ratings because there's more to measure than just homes. In my mind, media is the best industry because it constantly evolves to match the changing times.

Nielson's website has this information on their website, the top 10 television shows (prime time) each week. A great resource for advertisers and knowing where ads fit! http://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/top10s/television.html

Audiences make or break media. The industry is a puzzle of constantly evolving and adapting to ever changing viewing audiences and achieving success.