PROGRAMMING AND RATINGS

Programming and Ratings in the Television Industry

Programs and Ratings in the Television Industry

Introduction

The recent trade media reportage of a Nielsen client notification on September 21 about a restatement of the Program Viewing Frequency metric in Nielsen's N Power tool contained inaccurate facts and misleading information about the potential impact this could have on the sale of TV advertising. Some of these trade stories suggesting the TV advertising market could be affected were wrong; the TV advertising market remains unaffected. The Program Viewing Frequency metric as reported by NPower measures the number of times viewers watched a program in a window of time selected by a user. The Program Viewing Frequency metric produced by NPower is not connected to buying platforms used for TV advertising and should be distinguished from the TV commercial ratings known as "C3" which are used for that purpose. Since 2007, the TV industry has used commercial ratings, not program ratings, to negotiate the price of TV advertising. Nielsen developed C3 in consultation with clients and input from the industry to incorporate time-shifted viewing into TV ratings. C3 measures the average commercial minutes viewed during live programming plus three days of Digital Video Recorder (DVR), Video on Demand (VOD) and Internet playback. Nielsen's C3 ratings are accredited by and subject to the Media Rating Council's rigorous audit process that ensures audience measurement services are valid, reliable and effective. Nielsen provides the TV advertising market with the most accurate, comprehensive and reliable audience measurement available. The Program Viewing Frequency metric reported by NPower is not part of the C3 ratings. This is the reason why all issues related to program and ratings in the television industry will be discussed in detail.

Body

Nielsen Holdings N.V. is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence, mobile measurement, trade shows and related properties. Nielsen has presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. In the mid-1990 broadcasters developed TV Parental Guidelines, designed to be used to evaluate television content's appropriateness for young audiences. Ratings help parents determine if programs contain adult themes and content, and also whether or not a particular show might be too frightening for children. Like the motion picture industry's rating system that governs which films children may view, the TV rating system classifies programs in a system with seven different categories, ranging from those that are appropriate for all audiences to shows that are recommended for mature audiences only. One of the biggest changes to affect the television industry over the past five years has been the transition from traditional program ratings to the C3 ratings that are the primary currency today. Program ratings, of course, give the audience information about the average size of the audience for an individual program. C3 ratings are based on the average size of the audience for the commercials within the program (the 3 refers to the ...