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TV watching is getting better! It\u2019s not just because TiVo lets you skip the ads, it\u2019s not just the high-quality original programming from the premium cable channels, it\u2019s big data doing something actually useful.<\/p>\nTV watching is getting better! It\u2019s not just because TiVo lets you skip the ads, it\u2019s not just the high-quality original programming from the premium cable channels, it\u2019s big data doing something actually useful.<\/p>\n
The lead feature in the April issue of Wired<\/i> covers what it calls \u201cthe Platinum Age of Television,\u201d and it says \u201cnetworks and advertisers are using all-new metrics to design hit shows.\u201d The Nielsen rating system\u2019s hegemony has developed some pretty serious cracks in today\u2019s multimedia environment. It was best at projecting how many people were sitting in front of their television sets watching a given show at a given time. Once the DVR arrived, Nielsen adjusted its system to count viewers who watched an episode up to a week later. And, this fall it says it will start counting views streamed over the Internet.<\/p>\n
But it still isn\u2019t counting Hulu, Netflix, Apple TV, Amazon Prime, Roku, iTunes, smartphone, or tablet viewings, says Wired<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Since the key younger demographic is disappearing from the ratings system and the networks and advertisers are left with grandpa in his La-Z-Boy, they\u2019re looking to new information sources: Twitter followers, show-related trending topics, and the like. In February, Twitter bought Bluefin Labs to help it start providing some of these data. Bluefin and its competitors mine social media messages relevant to 120 different TV networks and link them to data on the people who post and the devices they use. Watching while tweeting and posting to Facebook are a new norm.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome day in the near future, a show\u2019s tweetability may be just as crucial as the sheer size of its audience,\u201d says Wired<\/i>. This means that shows people actually care about will rise in the network firmament based on much more than timeslot viewers.<\/p>\n
Networks know some shows attract a small audience that really, really cares about them. Think of the firestorm of letters they receive when they cancel one, or how NBC had to get creative with Direct TV to save Friday Night Lights<\/i>. Comparing \u201cmost watched\u201d to \u201cmost loved\u201d shows, a lot people are watching stuff they don\u2019t care about all that much. Viewers rate a number of shows\u2014Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, Sherlock<\/i> (OMG, PBS!), for example\u2014higher than the much more popular NCIS, Vegas<\/i> and others. Which only proves what we\u2019ve always known, just because a show is watched doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s very good.<\/p>\n
With better metrics, the shows people feel passionate about may stand a better chance of survival.<\/p>\n
Exploring Further<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n Wired<\/i> \u2013 How Data Powers the Platinum Age of Television<\/a><\/p>\n The Nielsen Company – \u201cNew Study Confirms Correlation between Twitter and TV Ratings\u201d<\/a> -3\/20\/13<\/p>\n TV.Com\u2019s annotated list of most popular TV shows<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" TV watching is getting better! It\u2019s not just because TiVo lets you skip the ads, it\u2019s not just the high-quality original programming from the premium cable channels, it\u2019s big data doing something actually useful. The lead feature in the April … Continue reading