Of Hearts and Families |
Yes, I work in television.
And yes, amidst all the showbiz talk and seeming glitz and glamor, television is still business - BIG business.
We’ve all heard about the local networks battling it out, accusing each other of sabotage and plagiarism. And of course we’ve all seen them flash ratings on our screens, each one claiming to surpass the other.
But what do these ratings mean? Why would television executives willingly involve themselves in ‘word wars’ of sorts, spewing out one accusation after the other while planning out the next brilliantly contrived move on how to out-rate the other?
AC Nielsen and Audits of Great Britain (AGB) are the independent bodies which gather all the data regarding the viewing habits of the population in Megamanila (Central Metro Manila and Southern Luzon).
Why Megamanila in particular?
There are several reasons for this - all of which can be found in praning.com.
But the bottomline why Megamanila is being targeted by these independent bodies is because this greatly populated area has a ‘high rate of television penetration’ since 9.8 million out of 13.8 million households own at least one television set.
The television industry has primarily found its home in this area.
Ratings are basically the amount of audience shares a certain program would have, i.e., the percentage of the viewing public in Megamanila tuned in to a particular show.
I won’t go into detail - but program analyses also involve minute-per-minute reports of the audience’s viewing habits - that is, for how long they would stay on a certain program before clicking on to another channel, which segments of the program prove to be the strongest, etc.
So, why do networks rely on ratings for their ultimate success?
A simplistic answer for a rather simple question : that which defines a business’ ultimate success is money. And ratings mean money.
The percentage of audience shares of a network would translate to the number of people who tune into its channel. The higher the number of percentage of people who tune in, the higher the rating. The higher the rating, the more attractive that show’s time slot becomes to advertisers who would pay ample amounts to be given air time by the networks. This heightens the exposure of the advertisers’ clients. These clients, in turn, are able to entice buyers to purchase their products.
Thus, the money wheel goes ’round and ’round and ’round.
So next time you come upon yet another ‘word war’ between tv giants, you’ll come to understand that it is not mere showbiz talk…and while it is true that silence is golden; in business, there is nothing sweeter than the sound of shiny, golden trinkets.
For more information on how television ratings are gathered, go to : Nielsen Media Research
ORIGINAL ARTICLE SOURCE: http://www.gbwatch.com/?p=36About the Author:
Visit http://gbwatch.com/ "...the other.
But what do these ratings mean? Why would television executives willingly involve themselves in ‘word wars’ of sorts, spewing out one accusation aft..." |
|
