The Television Revolution: Ratings vs. Sharing and the Impact of New Technologies on Programming Views

Ratings vs. Shares

Television viewing is measured within the Nielson Cross-Platform scale that measures who is watching T.V. and on what device. The program used single source measurement data to produce ratings and shares of what programs are being watched at a given period of time. Ratings and share percentages differ mainly on the amount of televisions included in the measurement. Ratings how the size of a viewing audience to a specific program over all of the televisions in households, either on or off. However, shares only incorporate televisions that are currently turned on during the program. So, it is the percentage of audience members to the show over the total televisions in use at that time. The graphic to the right further shows the difference between the two.

NFL Sports Dominate Sunday Night Programming

You can see the differences in ratings and shares in shows based on the time of day they are shown. In comparing the CBS overrun football game and Sunday Night Football to the rest of the programs, Football heavily dominates the ratings and shares. The NFL overrun into 7pm destroyed the ratings of the Emmy's Red Carpet live by over 5 points. The statistics also show that ratings of these programs increase in overall audience after 8pm to 9pm.

Television Sparks the Rise of Multi-Screen Interactivity

According to Pew internet, new trends have emerged from viewers of these programs. They call this the rise of the "Connected Viewer". According to the site, 52% of viewers use a mobile device while they watch programming. These are used during breaks, even during the program, to check factual claims, social media sites and other apps. A question could be raised is if new multi-media devices such as phones are taking over the place of TV's, which are less stimulating devices. An interesting note from the study was that 81% of people from 18-24 used mobile devices during programs. Could this mean a decrease in ratings and shares in programs or a new form of interactivity with the TV shows. This article expands on the argument that TV is becoming an irrelevant medium.