OzTAM to answer your burning questions on TV ratings
Got a question for OzTAM CEO Doug Peiffer on the ratings system?
- Published by David Knox
- on
- Filed under News
How do ratings work? When will we have national ratings? How can I get a people-meter? Why are networks allowed to split-code?
In a TV Tonight first, OzTAM CEO Doug Peiffer will answer your questions on Ratings.
Ratings continues to be one of the most popular sections of the blog, but there are still plenty of questions about whether they reflect what we are really watching.
This week OzTAM announced it would be increasing panel homes for metropolitan, regional and subscription TV from 2017, to make Australia the world’s largest per capita people metered market.
If you have a question on ratings you’re invited to leave a Comment here.
Amongst the potential areas for questions are:
- Ratings process: People-meters, panel households, living rooms & families, collating, analysing etc.
- Accuracy: Market sizes & representation, Metro vs Regional
- Data: Demographics, ages, population changes, advertisers, primetime share, Timeshifted.
- Networks: Preliminary vs. adjusted, EPG vs coding, Split-coding & “winner announced” numbers, roadblocks on multichannels. ABC & SBS, Pay TV.
- Multiple screens: TVs, catch-up, Live streaming, mobiles.
- Media: Reportage, rankings, headlines.
From your submitted questions I’ll forward 5 to Doug Peiffer which will be answered in a separate article.
Over to you…!
28 Responses
I have another question (only if the questions haven’t been forward to the oztam ceo yet)…
The network % shares are from prime-time. Wouldn’t it be better to have a top 20 table for the primary and multi-channels just for shows that air in primetime (which is 6pm – midnight), and have a separate table for shows outside the primetime slots (for shows between midnight and 6pm)?
I was regarding about AFL as well as NRL ratings that these figures were split up between 7 & 7mate and 9 & Gem.
Do these two channels for each sporting events count towards 5-city Metro?
Is there a material reason why we can’t have national, rather than only, metro, TV ratings?
How many meters are in each state ie Perth or Melbourne on each weekly basis.
I have never been had one. Have done a radio servey for Macnair
Let’s not waste questions on things that we can easily answer ourselves.
Sydney: 950 homes
Melbourne: 900
Brisbane: 650
Adelaide: 500
Perth: 500
– When will national ratings be launched? What is the delay?
– Considering all 3 networks sell 25-54, why doesn’t Oztam release nightly shares in 25-54?
– Would Oztam consider publishing actual “ratings” for show (“Masterchef did a 11.2 rating in Melbourne but only a 6.9 in Brisbane”) so we could compare ratings in each market (and shows that don’t aie nationally) against each other relative to market size
Why can’t the split ratings and segments appear in a separate table?
Just the same as everyone else 🙂
How can the US have national ratings with over 300m people but Australia doesn’t?
What is more important to the networks – total numbers or demos?
How can a show be split into multiples?
Why can’t Australia have a defined primetime like the US? This would kind of reduce the overruns. 8-11pm in the US. I’d say 7.30-10.30 here. The news isn’t an entertainment show.
Completely agree with ratings only counting for 7.30 – 10.30. The quality of TV after 7.30 would drastically improve as under the current system the night can be won just on the performance of the 6pm news – look at Seven for example – they win last night with no stand out programming last night other than the news.
Also would like to see the top 20’s include only prime time. The top 20 for multi channels is ridiculous usually filled with as many as 18 ABC for kids shows.
Why can’t we just be told how many people watched a show? I don’t care where they are in Australia!
The results are for advertisers and ad break contents are not consistent across the country.
Well..this is to satisfy my curiosity and fascination with ratings – why can’t we have a list above Top 20 – eg Top 30, 40, etc for free? I think I am pushing the boundary here 🙂
Why do you still allow certain networks to split their programs into various segments?
Like: The Project 6.30 and The Project 7pm; The Chase 5pm and The Chase 5.30pm; Nine News 6pm and Nine News 6.30pm; Seven and Nine Afternoon News have two ratings; both Sunrise and Today have : Early, “middle” and Late; The Morning Show; Today Extra and Studio 10 have their ratings split up into two too.
Yet Home and Away’s double (and sometimes triple) episodes on Thursdays are averaged out, despite actually having various episodes.
Great questions. And also those ‘winner announced’ brief segments.
Because OzTAM is jointly owned by Seven, Nine, and Ten.
Following on from the ones you listed at the top of this article,
When will we have national ratings? Why are networks allowed to split-code?
Also, is there potential conflict of interest given Oztam is owned by the commercial networks?
Why are the total people figures the primary focus of ratings releases, when advertisers predominantly care about the demographic shares? Why does OzTAM not report ratings in a similar way to America, whereby the 18-49 share is reported alongside total viewership? Also, would it be more practical to release a top 5/10 shows per channel, rather than just the top 20 FTA, multichannels and Foxtel as ratings releases are currently restricted to?
How are the numbers of people represented by a people meter adjusted as the population of a market changes? If a meter represents 3000 people and the population increases by 2%, is the meter then considered to represent 3000+2% = 3060 people?
How are the growing numbers of people who don’t, or very rarely, watch television adjusted for, since they obviously won’t be given a people meter
How are people with meters chosen and what is the selection process?
Is it true that people who predominantly watch ABC do not get added to the panel?
From what I have read on here before I think that is a Yes. OZTAM is for the Commercial networks
I understand that but that makes the ratings a bit of a joke when they are then giving ratings figures for ABC and SBS at the same time as excluding those viewers.
Yes, the ratings certainly seem to me to indicate being skewed towards people with Oztam boxes having rather Boganesque tastes. Even a quality series on a commercial network won’t rate well. How are you choosing these 3000-odd to represent all tastes, when the vast majority of them seem to have such bad taste? 🙂
While we are finding Pokemon in the streets on our smart phones, why are we still recording how many are watching TV via boxes like we have been doing for 10, 20 or more years?
Surely technology would allow us simply to capture a more accurate and live audience number. Apps like Periscope know and show us how many are watching live. Imagine real time numbers being available while you are still watching a program live.
Freeview and digital TV rollout should have been the enabler to providing the complete number viewing, not just a sample size to be extrapolated.
Privacy aside (where individuals do not wish to share or have recorded what they are watching) why are we still using people meter boxes?
How does it work accurately? Do they record the audio off the TV? Do they patch into my TV set itself? What if I change channel back and forth between two shows?
It’s done with audio signal matching. The people meter records the time that you are on a particular channel.
so forgive my evil conniving mind…….but a person with a meter could be ‘working’ for a certain network and put their tv on that channel then walk away and do something else or go and watch another channel on another tv in the house ?
In theory, yes, but the data is analysed for inconsistencies and people are asked about unusual patterns or sudden changes to their viewing habits.