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Audience measurement |
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2008) |
Audience measurement measuring how many people are in an audience, usually in relation to radio listenership and television viewership, but also newspaper and magazine readership, and increasingly, usage of websites. It often also includes demographic and sometimes psychographic information, to help broadcasters and advertisers determine who is listening, rather than just how many. This broader meaning is called audience research.
Measurements are broken-down by media market, which for the most part corresponds to metropolitan areas, both large and small.
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The diary was the first and until recently the only method of recording information. However, this is prone to mistakes and forgetfulness, as well as subjectivity. Data is also collected down to the level of listener opinion of individual songs, cross referenced against their age, race, and economic status in listening sessions sponsored by oldies and mix formatted stations.
More recently, technology has been used to track listening and viewing habits. Arbitron's Portable People Meter uses a microphone to pick up and record subaudible tones embedded in broadcasts by an encoder at each station or network. It has even been used to track in-store radio.
There are certain software applications being developed to monitor cable TV operators with full passive and permissive viewer measurement functionality to monitor TV channel ratings. The system tracks every time the channel is changed and records it accordingly. It allows what was being viewed at the time and which channel the viewer changed to. This information allows operators, broadcasters and advertising media to monitor audience TV usage habits and will provide invaluable rating and viewing information. The system also has additional information captured includes interactive application-specific events, viewer information events, diagnostic events and even configuration update events.
Nielsen//NetRatings measures Internet and digital media audiences through a telephone and Internet survey. Nielsen BuzzMetrics measures consumer-generated media. Other companies collecting information on internet usage include comScore and Hitwise, who measure hits on internet pages. TruMedia provides real-time audience data including size, attention span and demographics by using Video Analytics technology to automatically detect, track and classify viewers watching digital displays. Networked Insights measures online audiences, and released a report ranking television shows based on people's interactions within social media. The study showed that half of the shows on Networked Insights' top 10 list did not appear on the Nielsen list.
Ratings point is a measure of viewership of a particular television program.
One single television ratings point (Rtg or TVR) represents 1% of viewers in the surveyed area in a given minute. As of 2004, there are an estimated 109.6 million television households in the USA. Thus, a single national household ratings point represents 1%, or 1,096,000 households for the 2004-05 season. When used for the broadcast of a program, the average rating across the duration of the show is typically given. Ratings points are often used for specific demographics rather than just households. For example a ratings point among the key 18-49 year olds demographic is equivalent to 1% of all 18-49 year olds in the country.
A Rtg / TVR is different from a share point in that it is the percentage of all possible viewers, while a share point is 1% of all viewers watching television at the time. Hence the share of a broadcast is often significantly higher than the rating, especially at times when overall TV viewing is low.
Gross rating points (GRPs) / Target Rating Points (TRPs) are chiefly used to measure the performance of TV-based advertising campaigns, and are the sum of the TVRs of each commercial spot within the campaign. An ad campaign might require a certain number of GRPs (TRPs) among a particular demographic across the duration of the campaign. The GRP (TRP) of a campaign is equal to the percentage of people who saw any of the spots, multiplied by the average number of spots that these viewers saw.
Diary-based radio ratings in the U.S. may inflate listenership, because it is only measured in 15-minute increments. Listening at any time during a quarter-hour counts as listening for the entire duration, even if the actual time was just for a song or two.
The process of surveying listeners for their preferences has also been criticised for its lack of flexibility. Listeners complain that modern radio lacks variety and depth but the measurement methods only facilitate further refinement of already minutely programmed formats rather than the overhaul that many listeners are asking for. Radio, particularly in the United States, is where listeners hear their old favorites rather than are exposed to new music. Data obtained by some audience measurement methods is detailed to individual songs and how they are reacted to by each age, racial, and economic group the station is seeking to attract. This statistical approach leads to highly recognizable songs (such as those from the Beatles) which score well with a cross section of listeners. 1
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Please help improve this article or section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page. (December 2007) |
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