Television would not exist without its audience. Television stations strategically target particular audiences by modifying their daily schedule in order to attract, and win as much of an audience share as possible. So how do television stations keep up with ratings, and know if their strategies are paying off?

The most commonly used way of measuring the audience of a particular channel or television program is to check its ratings. TV Tonight is a website dedicated to informing its readers about the latest news regarding Australian television, including ratings. Each morning, the site is updated with a number of statistics and tables; listing the top twenty most watched programs on free to air television for the previous day. The numbers for each program are split into categories for each city, and then totaled to give the combined number of viewers nationwide (Knox, 2014).

These numbers are important to television producers. Simply put, the more viewers a particular program is receiving, the more advertisers will pay that channel to place ads during that program’s commercial breaks. Therefore, shows that rate consistently terribly are usually cancelled, as they are making little money for the channel and usually cost more to produce than they are worth.

However, the problem that comes from television ratings is the way in which they are recorded. Many people believe that every television nationwide has the ability to have its data recorded and counted in daily ratings reports. This is false! A company called OzTam distributes a Unitam meter to several households across Australia in order to gather television ratings. With each member of the household registering themselves, the Unitam meter records data that allows OzTam to know who is watching what, at what time, and for how long (OzTam, 2011).

PHOTO: Unless you have a Unitam device set up in your house, your television views do not count towards ratings (source: Throng)

It could be debated that this is an unfair representation of Australia’s interests. For example, it’s possible that OzTam has given the Unitam to too many sport fanatics, or reality TV enthusiasts. Perhaps those with a Unitam in their house favor a particular program, and lie about watching it even when they didn’t get the chance, in the hopes of boosting its ratings.

Also, the OzTam approach to collecting ratings does not account for recent trends that advances in technology have brought. For example, it has become accustom for most commercial television channels to have a free app in the app store, allowing users to watch the channel live from their portable device, or even catch up on shows they have missed (Hopewell, 2013). Given the popularity of these apps, it seems foolish to neglect the use of them when it comes to ratings.

Additionally, the average Australian does not simply sit down to watch television, and concentrate wholeheartedly on the screen. Consuming all types of media has become part of our everyday life. Most people tend to multi task, using social media or playing games on their iPhones whilst the television is on. Using social media whilst watching certain television programs, especially sports and reality, are even encouraged (McNair, 2013). If we get distracted and don’t watch the television at all, or just keep it on in the background while guests are over, should this constitute towards ratings?

Personally, I constantly use my iPad and iPhone whilst watching television. Most shows these days don’t seem to hold my attention, as I zone in and out of focus with what I am watching. As I have become so dependent on my phone as a source of entertainment, the constant sound of a notification or text coming through usually distracts me at those few moments when I actually am paying attention. The television screen can never seem to win.

Australia’s method of measuring its television audience via ratings is outdated, and not fully accurate. Using a sample size of the population to make assumptions about the rest of the population is something that could possibly hurt advertisers, believing they are paying top dollar to show their ads during ‘peak’ ratings programs.

It’s hard to believe that while technology has come so far, we still haven’t made it to the point where a more accurate method of audience measurement has been created.

References:

Hopewell L 2013, Channel Ten Launches TenPlay TV Streaming App, Gizmodo, viewed 12^th August 2014, <http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2013/09/channel-ten-launches-tenplay-tv-streaming-app/>.

Knox D 2014, Ratings, TV Tonight, viewed 12^th August 2014, <http://www.tvtonight.com.au/category/ratings>.

McNair R 2013, Is Twitter transforming the way we watch TV?, Econsultancy, viewed 12^th August 2014, <https://econsultancy.com/blog/62010-is-twitter-transforming-the-way-we-watch-tv#i.47ftbh153ed7sh>.

The Ratings Process 2011, OzTam, viewed 12^th August 2014, <http://www.oztam.com.au/theratingsprocess.aspx>.

What do you think about this method of collecting ratings? Have your say in the comments below!