TV Networks Want To Yank Nielsen Accreditation (variety.com) 43
The nation's big TV companies are calling for a new yardstick. From a report: A trade organization representing Disney, ViacomCBS, NBCUniversal, Fox Corp. and other media giants is calling for the organization that signs off on Nielsen's methodology for measuring TV viewership to yank accreditation, an aggressive maneuver in an era when media outlets and the advertisers who support them are scrambling to figure out how to count viewer eyeballs across an increasingly unwieldy array of new entertainment venues, digital behaviors and screens. The trade group, the VAB, on Wednesday sent a ten-page letter to the Media Rating Council urging the group to pull its backing of Nielsen's ratings, citing Nielsen's diminished ability to count viewership during the coronavirus pandemic. "Nielsen's COVID-period conduct as a ratings service violated at least five minimum standards," the VAB said in its letter, "with the damage done to their largest subscriber clients still creating material negative impact into July 2021."
Too much stuff (Score:5, Interesting)
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Re:Too much stuff (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Too much stuff (Score:4, Interesting)
This my guess. OTA is probably the most expensive delivery format the networks have but it also is critical to them being able to differentiate themselves with advertisers vs other media - they get claim the really can reach every last eyeball.
However as the ratings drops, what they can justify charging for that also goes down and gradually the return on the enterprise gets worse and worse. Don't like the data - obvious answer stop counting.
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Most expensive and also least targeted.
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This is likely in response to falling ratings.
Just look at the latest round of Emmy nominations. How many are OTA and cable shows, and how many are streaming-first shows?
Hint: streaming is where it's at if you want to watch the stuff that's worth watching.
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Be wary.
We have fiber (not Google) and when I raised an issue related to the rules for cable television, the response was "we are IPTV and not subject to cable television rules." We're locked in because the HOA chose them for the building. We could get service from a cable company, but we'd still be paying for this and the internet is as fast as the servers on the other end.
Translation (Score:2)
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The sad thing is that we are also in the era of ongoing storylines versus everything resets TV that used to be the norm.
I love this format and hate that we reached it at a time where every show feels the need to virtue signal and preach using the subtilty of a hammer.
Next Generation versus Picard is an extreme example.
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Yes each show doesn't reset at the end, there is an ongoing story line, but that story line isn't much more than we had with one or 2 episode story line, its mainly filler, with only a little bit of extra information revealed at the end of the episode to make you come back for the next. I like long stories, but if you don't have the plot spreading a short story over months if not years is just boring. Too many times have I fallen asleep during a show and not been bothered going back, because I know I haven'
Re:Go Woke, Go Broke (Score:4)
I will say that Babylon 5 did this best. Individual self contained stories while telling a longer, ongoing story.
It makes rewatching individual episodes much more satisfyingly than - for example - BSG. BSG is great but hard to just pick a random episode and feel like you had any resolution to what was going on.
Stargate SG1 was pretty cool in that it did not forget previous episodes as much (at least overarch and technology wise) but on a people level, development frequently reset after each episode.
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Those Damn Kids and their Bad TV. Not like the TV I enjoyed between the Ages of 8-21, the shows during that time frame was surly the Golden Age of TV/Music/Video Games/Movies...
The old stuff before that era, was too unpolished, often talked about and did a lot of cringe worthy stuff that we find objectionable today.
The new stuff after that era, has too many special effects, deals with people that makes me feel like a bad person.
If you keep an open mind, and not freak out that a Character might be Gay, and
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Why would the Race, Gender and Sexual Orientation of a character in a story where it isn't about that particular trait affect quality?
Answer: It doesn't. The old stuff may often bring in these minorities in a poorly written Tax write off "Very Special Episode" in which now many people may associate seeing such roles as being part of these poorly written shows. But the fact that this new stuff may have these people as main characters often dealing with plots not related to their attribute and showing them
Re: Go Woke, Go Broke (Score:2)
This is what's damaging American entertainment in general. It's why a single manga title outsold the entire US comics industry.
Quality is a very distant third place to profit and wokeness. Lazy reboots, race/gender swaps, and throwing in the gay enough to be noticed in the West while easily hidden in Eastern markets. Hiring people based on political views and identity rather than any talent.
Box office failures and low ratings embarrass these companies. The sooner they can hide their shame the better for the
Does not matter TV networks and (Score:3)
Nielsen ratings are pointless (Score:3)
TV is so ridden with adverts and so fucking hopeless that I'm pretty sure people's brain simply turn off when the ads run. Which, in the US is 15 minutes of ads for 3 minutes of "content" - and I use the word content in the most generous sense. I mean after decades of that stringent brainwashing regimen, surely people's brain have rewired themselves to survive the onslaught of stupidity.
That's if the viewers simply leave the TV on and go do something else, like have a poo or cook dinner or something.
Nielsen boxes have no way of knowing whether the target brains are staying put in front of the idiot box, and in a state suitable to receive more brainwashing content.
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You can't turn off your brain (Score:2)
Nielsen does not use boxes anymore. They have smart microphones you wear which fingerprints everything it hears and sends the data back to them. The bandwidth usage is LOW so I couldn't tell if they were streaming bits of audio or sending lots of fingerprint data. I certainly felt like I was being recorded by an IoT smart microphone...
TV would LOVE for you to turn off your conscious mind during their ads! Your subconscious mind is always paying attention unless you change the channel. If you are watching
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Nielsen does not use boxes anymore. They have smart microphones you wear which fingerprints everything it hears and sends the data back to them.
Really? Do people really volunteer to do this? Do they get paid? Because quite frankly that sounds more than a little creepy.
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Yes they get paid. I don't remember, how much but they get a bit extra for not forgetting it or something. It is per-person and they told me it had a motion sensor so you can't just set it next to a TV or something.
Since you know of the device... it's voluntary except for everybody you interact with. I don't think the device works on normal wifi because they had a base station. Yes, it seems odd to let them listen inside your house; however, your ISP sells your DNS data and any streaming is obviously known
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Ad Pricing (Score:2)
I'm thinking this has to do with ad pricing [centralcasting.com] since the tv networks use the Nielsen data for that.
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Falling ad prices mean panicking executives.
Panicking executives order something to be done.
Something being done is what you are observing.
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Spying (Score:5, Interesting)
The sad fact of the matter is that the smart TV, cable and streaming companies can do a much, much better job at tracking everything you do than anything Nielsen can Frankenstein together. Keep in mind that Roku based TV's track *absolutely* everything you watch and do. Not just what channels you watch, but what shows you watch, what movies you watch on streaming service, which Youtube videos you look at, *everything* Nielsen can't hope to compete with that.
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Not just what channels you watch, but what shows you watch, what movies you watch on streaming service, which Youtube videos you look at, *everything*
... *quietly deletes porn folder from Roku's Plex app*
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The flip side to that is that, ultimately, whoever is consuming that data has to trust the party providing it. When the data determines how much I, the advertiser, need to pay you, the content provider, and you're the guy who's giving me the data to base my decision on, there's a huge conflict of interest. Having a third party in the middle that we both agree to trust ameliorates that.
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Like you still cared what viewers want (Score:2)
Just do what you've been doing the past decade or two, produce the cheapest crap possible, knowing that people can't really do anything but watch your crap...
Oh wait, they can now, can't they?
Cant stop the signal (Score:1)
Nielsen didn't win the war.
Visited the US about 10 years ago... (Score:4, Informative)
...when my mother passed away. As the only child, I had to clean up her affairs. Because my kids wanted to come along, they did, but...I'm getting to TFA... I had little time for them, so they watched a lot of TV. My mother only had the basic stuff, so that's what they watched.
Oh. My. FSM.
All channels were at least 1/3 commercials. Lots of the kids programs were basically extended commercials. Ones that weren't, were braindead: SpongeBob? Spare me ever hearing that again. Nature channels? Grade school, and even in our two week window, lots and lots of repeats. I'm not British, but BBC's free content puts US programs to shame. Funny, how it wasn't available. Probably because it doesn't run 1/3 commercials.
US TV could die a death, and no one would miss it....
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No offense but this reads like people who claim American food is nothing but "McDonalds burgers and white bread" and it's just as silly as Americans who claim all British food is bad. Good things are out there if you look for it a bit. American TV has lot's of crap but so does American music and yet there a large number of American shows and music acts that are fantastic.
Every country has their good programming, good food and good music and they all have a fair amount of garbage. America produces a lot
People still watch TV? (Score:2)
I think it’s been 10 years since our family has watched free to air or cable TV. Surprised it was still a thing.
Excuses vs real reasons (Score:2)
Nielsen's performance has been waning since long before the COVID pandemic hit us -- so the past year might be at worst a red herring, but at best it's still simply a larger sample demonstrating what most in the industry had already figured out. The fact is, Nielsen's methodology is no longer effective in todays market.
Think about it: More and more people have switched over to some form of streaming on demand, and -- let's just be honest, here -- the cable companies really suck at that. Therefore, the first