As one might expect a couple of weeks before an election, the air is filled with the sound of pollsters. I don’t know about you but we get called almost every day (and night) to answer some poll about our voting intentions (absolutely), our choice of candidate (not you if you don’t stop calling), and our basic demography (I’m a 29-year-old woman with blond hair and a deep voice as far as they know).
Political polls aren’t the only kind you read about, and involve in your business, every day. TV ratings are polls, as are almost all media data. So it’s good to keep a few things in mind as you see the data. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Nielsen Ratings
Don’t Believe The Hype
It’s nice that a lot of people watched the Super Bowl on Sunday. In fact, there are a ton of reports out about how it was “the most watched event in TV history.” I’m sure that’s true, or as true anything that comes out of the very imperfect system of TV ratings can be. This piece from Media Post is typical of the reporting that’s out there. Most of them would lead the typical reader to believe that this game set all kinds of viewing records. Well, in terms of raw numbers of people viewing, it did. But how about a little perspective as a good lesson in how you need to read carefully. Continue reading
Filed under Helpful Hints, Reality checks, sports business
Backwards
The latest Nielsen Three Screen Report is out this morning. In a nutshell:
During 2nd Quarter 2009, the number of people watching mobile video increased 70% from last year and people who watch video on line increased their viewing by 46% compared to a year ago. In addition, the average American TV consumption remains at an all-time high (141 hours per month) compared to the same time frame last year.
Great, except they’ve got it backwards. Continue reading
Filed under digital media, Helpful Hints
Consult Keith 