The Gift to Syndication of Nielsen’s Ratings Magi

Editor39s Note This is the third column in Simon Applebaum39s ongoing series about syndication Read the first column here and the second one hereNielsen and Rentrak the preeminent monitors of TV usage are in the midst of deploying new services that expand both the number of households tracked on a regular basis and the sources used to pinpoint what those households view Executives at both organizations say these new services will be fully operational before the end of the yearFor the firstrun syndication community what Nielsen and Rentrak start providing could trigger a new appeal on their part for a greater share of advertising With new evidence of how widespread an audience a program really has on a daily or weekly basis whether for amp8220The People39s Court39samp8221 doublerun of halfhours on two stations in the same market via Warner Bros or amp8220The Wendy Williams Showamp8221 DebmarMercury places that popular hour on TV stations during the day and nationally on BET in latenight those syndicators could see an increase in ad revenues for their barter podsAnd for syndicators with borderlinerated originals the more comprehensive surveys could make all the difference among stations for keeping those series around for another seasonNielsen39s process known as Total Audience increases its household sample base from 25920 to 40330 Data from settop boxes and devices which smarten TV sets such as Roku Chromecast Amazon Fire TV and Apple TV will be incorporated for the first time Kelly Abcarian Nielsen39s senior vice president of global watch product architecture also promises the system will track digital video recorder activity of individual programs in a household for up to 35 days and collate data from tablets and desktop PCsquotAt the endquot Abcarian says quotwe39ll be able to bring together the total audience for different episodes We39re getting an overwhelming response from clients across the board on this formatquotWhere Nielsen39s new process covers the entire spectrum of TV content not just syndication Rentrak39s effort is aimed specifically at nationallysyndicated programs Settop boxes from a large household universe covering 210 markets will be the central data source with DVR breakdowns for both threeday and weeklong playback of individual episodes The settop data will also be used to determine the buying patterns these households establish whether for cars or holiday giftsSony Pictures TV is the first syndicator to sign up for Rentrak39s service Other programmers are considering similar alliances adds Carol Hinnant Rentrak39s senior vice president of national TV salesSony is now in its seventh season producing and distributing amp8220The Dr Oz Showamp8221 the Emmywinning daytime talkinformation hour after wrapping up two seasons of amp8220The Queen Latifah Showamp8221 The company continues as producer of longrunning early evening game shows amp8220Wheel of Fortuneamp8221 and amp8220Jeopardyamp8221 distributed by CBS39 syndication unitThe decision to break out syndication for a specific ongoing report came quotbecause this is an underserved marketplacequot Hinnant continues quotA marketplace that doesn39t have the same investment in advanced rating metrics as other sectors This offers those metrics 247 on a daily basisquotCBSamp8217 Chief Research Officer David Poltrack spoke about the early public reaction to these services at UBS39 annual global media and communications conference quotIt39s going to give more stability to the household sample with better representation of younger viewers and geographyamp8221 he declared amp8220We39re very anxious to get that kind of measurement That39s what we wantquotDespite his enthusiasm Poltrack added a cautious caveat quotOnce you declare something39s a total audience measurement it had better damn be totalquot he warnedUntil the next time stay well and stay tunedImage at top courtesy of Corbis The opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillageMyersBizNet management or associated bloggers

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The Gift to Syndication of Nielsen’s Ratings Magi

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