TV Ratings: Gimmick, Chicanery or Currency Manipulation? - Jonathan Steuer-TiVo

How delightful The New York Times has provided me with a perfect opportunity to continue my ranting The February 2 2012 frontpage piece by Bill Carter on TV network ratings trickery provides a perfect illustration of just how broken the current TV ratings environment is I39m appreciative of his generosity in providing a perfect followup to my last post but unfortunately he stops short of considering potential solutions or of offering examples of the ways frustrated advertisers are trying to work through this problemCarter39s focus is on the quotgimmicks and chicaneryquot in his words that TV networks use to tweak their Nielsen numbers amp8211 for example the way ABC lists Good Morning America as quotGood Morning Amerquot during a week with low viewership so as not to pull down averages the way NBC lists a Florida GOP debate as an episode of Rock Center with Brian Williams to bump up its ratings and the way networks extend shows one minute past halfhour boundaries to improve their leadins Carter reports that Nielsen doesn39t step in quotunless a gimmick results in something egregiously falsequot and he asserts that the gimmicks don39t have much direct material impact on the networks Carter claims that they mostly engage in the practice for bragging rights and press coverage rather than as a means of influencing the value of their commercial inventory since he seems to believe that Nielsen39s C3 commercial ratings should not be affected by these practices quotMarketers get what they paid for no matter where a commercial gets placedquot Carter blithely proclaims without citing any actual evidence to support his assertionIf only that were really true Marketers may get what they paid for in contractual terms amp8211 that is in viewership as measured by C3 But that doesn39t necessarily mean that they got what they thought they were paying for quotEgregiously falsequot is setting the bar pretty low And furthermore the C3 ratings typically used for posting are calculated from the average viewership of all the commercial pods within a program and includes timeshifted viewing up to 3 days later amp8211 not from the actual viewership of actual spots by actual humans That39s not because marketers aren39t smart enough to understand real metrics amp8211 the rapid rise of actual accountable Internet advertising is evidence that advertiser dollars are jumping to a medium in which the numbers actually do add up But TV does still offer a level of simultaneous reach that Web ads still can39t touch and it39s clearly time to abandon the quotsimplifying assumptionsquot we39ve accepted for so long in measuring TV viewership amp8211 the assumptions that make gaming the system appear to payBecause TiVo39s measurement capability is integrated directly into TiVo39s DVRs we39re able to measure precisely and to aggregate accurately anonymous viewing minutes on a secondbysecond basis across 350000 households every day And our data show at least three major flaws in the assumptions underlying C3amp183 Commercial Retention varies significantly within a single programFor example during the January 19th episode of American Idol commercial retentions ranged from 39 for Chili39s Grill ampamp Bar Restaurant to 62 for Reebokamp183 Commercial Retention varies significantly based on pod placement TiVo analyzed Target Retail Stores commercials in the first four weeks of January 353 Target commercials in the first position garnered an average commercial retention of 89 compared to 531 ads in the middle positions with an average retention of 59amp183 Commercial Retention varies significantly based on ad creative Target commercials ranged from 60 to 85 for different creative executions each with 45 or more airings across multiple programs during the same periodamp183 Pod Busters inflate performance of individual ads without affecting C3 These clever bits of content dropped into the middle of ad pods tend to pull commercialskipping viewers back to attention amp8211 but that effect has limited spillover to other ads in the same pod NPR recently covered this network strategy citing several videos of pod busters In the Desperate Housewives example TiVo Audience Measurement data shows an astounding difference in commercial ratings 119 for the Sprint Nextel pod buster versus a 49 for a Macy39s ad in the middle positionTo Bill Carter39s credit his catalogue of deceptiveifnottechnicallyfraudulent behaviors provides evidence that TV currency manipulation is a wellentrenched problem But Carter stops short of highlighting the broader problem the very fact that the current quotTV Currencyquot can be manipulated All this network futzing is designed to exploit loopholes in Nielsen39s measurement methodology and in Nielsen39s unwillingness to play enforcer against paying clients39 dubious behaviors amp8211 in other words to arbitrage the value of C3 as a currency to networks39 advantage and frequently to advertisers39 detrimentIn the last year or so however we39ve already begun to see the first evidence that marketers are willing to explore currency alternatives to C3 For example following October39s MPG Collaborative Alliance presentation showing the sensitivity of Nielsen39s ratings of CNBC among households earning 125kplus CNBC recently announced a deal with MPG and Fidelity to post on Rentrak39s data in addition to C3Global financial markets long have employed multiple currencies for different kinds of transactions a similar move toward multiple ways to reckon value is finally underway in the media business Smart marketers soon will insist on employing currencies whose value is stable and predictable and whose valuation mechanisms are datadriven and transparent The time to create alternatives is nowSpecial thanks to my colleagues Greg DePalma and Alex Petrilli for compiling all the research examples listed in this documentJonathan Steuer recently joined TiVo as Vice President Audience Research ampamp Measurement where he leads TiVo39s efforts to develop innovative new media research products Jonathan can be reached at jsteuertivocomRead all Jonathan39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at InteracTiVotyCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentariesamp160

Become a Thought Leader.
Share your thought leadership article with industry professionals & have them archived in Thought Leadership

TV Ratings: Gimmick, Chicanery or Currency Manipulation? - Jonathan Steuer-TiVo

Author

Publish date

Channel

Archived in

Jonathan Steuer

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

More Videos:

Become a Thought Leader. Share your thought leadership article with industry professionals & have them archived in Thought Leadership

TV Ratings: Gimmick, Chicanery or Currency Manipulation? - Jonathan Steuer-TiVo

Enjoying This Commentary? There's More to Love

Jonathan Steuer

"About That with Carl Mayer:" Alaina Donnellon (Episode 10: Political Spending) - By Carl Mayer

The payment was successful

Cookies

Become a Thought Leader.
Share your thought leadership article with industry professionals & have them archived in Thought Leadership