What to look for as the TV ratings battle enters the crucial final lap for the year
Welcome to Unmade, written on a bright Sunday morning at beautiful Sisters Beach, Tasmania.
Happy National Chocolate Milkshake Day.
I’m glad to say that the Unmade community is still growing, even since yesterday’s note. We’re up to 1,081 now. If you want to help out a colleague who might like to be on the list, then feel free to forward this and encourage them to sign up. And by all means, make that an all-staffer while you’re at it… A shout out to the many media agency folk who have signed up in the last few days.
As of today, we have just 11 weeks of the official TV ratings year left to go.
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Unmade Substack
Unmade Substack
Hi Tim.
The 40 week anachronism is a hang-over from the AGB McNair diary days, when getting sample over the Christmas and Easter breaks was very difficult.
When Nielsen won the PeopleMeter contract in 1990 (for a 1991 start) there was the opportunity to have 13 x four-week summaries, but that was a leap too far – despite the fact daily data was available to all subscribers (network, agency and advertiser).
From memory, the underlying reason was that ‘summer diaries’ had been trialed and reported viewing was down something like 25%. When the first numbers came out it was something like 10% … that is, a big gain on what was thought to be commonly accepted.
When Nielsen lost the contract and OzTAM was created in 1999 it was basically a ‘no-change reporting’ for PR when the OzTAM data started to flow in 2000. IMHO … opportunity missed.
One of the good things is that VOZ reports nationally now. Probably as a result of the relaxation of media reach rules, so FINALLY people can see the fuller story.
Cheers.