TV Audiences Jump Dramatically with New Meters
Since the introduction of the portable people meters, national TV audiences have jumped by 18 per cent over last year, and viewing by the 18-24 demographic has risen by, get this, 66 per cent.
BBM says the increase is because the new meters can capture passive viewing, particularly viewing outside the home.
This came out a presentation yesterday at Advertising Week by Kathy Gardner, SVP of strategic insight and research at Canwest Broadcasting, and Rob Dilworth, VP of research at CTV Television. They also said PPM has the potential to measure other types of video and audio content, like video on demand, online clips, and commercials.
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Passive viewing.
Like, NOT tv? Or people like my mother, who have the tv on all the time while not watching it?
The second one. Basically PPMs look for audio watermarks embedded in the soundtrack, which is why they can be used for online video created from the same source as the broadcast video – assuming that the encoding format doesn’t nuke the watermark.
So if your mom has a PPM and turns the sound down, it doesn’t count.
Does anyone know how to access the new ratings system? I used to go to http://www.bbm.ca/en/top_programs.html to get the weekly report on Canadian television ratings and now that page isn’t working…
I don’t give a rat’s @** about the old or even the new rating system… I don’t use a PPM so they still don’t represent my viewing habits. I resent having my favorite shows being cancelled simply because those chosen few polled don’t share my viewing choices!!!
I suspect there are many others in the same boat as myself and that the BBM ratings are no where near close to actual viewership numbers… how can they be when only a small sampling of viewers are being tracked???
Here’s another thought… if one is outside the home… how many viewers are attributed to that particular program? Does the PPM viewer do a head count wherever they happen to be? Wouldn’t the results be skewed if one was counted but wasn’t actually watching the program???
@CrankyCanuck: If you resent that then you must hate practically every element of modern life, because there’s nothing in our society these days (short of voting, probably) that isn’t informed by statistical analysis.If the sample is well-chosen it doesn’t have to be too big to be representative, but obviously this is not always the case.
The PPM viewer doesn’t do a head count, it just applies to the person wearing it. So if you wear it down the pub it doesn’t skew the results. Counters with facial recognition are doable but people are resistant to them – for some reason. (Meanwhile the same people are probably posting their lives on Facebook.)