How To Watch Television (And Count)

Once upon a time, there was a device called a television. It was the only way to watch certain programs, and customers had no choice in the matter.

Picture of a Televsion*

*circa, I dunno, 1999? Let's go with that.

This isn't that time. Now there are a lot of ways to watch tv. It makes it pretty difficult to track how many people watch a specific show, and the ratings methods are slow to adapt. Let's talk about traditional, linear television for a sec.

One of the best shows on television, CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, has won awards, has a cult following, and all three season are currently available for streaming on Netflix. It is also the lowest rated show among the big networks for the last three years running.

Ratings are measured by a third party company called Nielsen through a Nielsen box. Don't know if you have one? Then you don't have one. Nielsen families go through a whole process to get one and have regular check-ins with the ratings company. These boxes are what determines the ratings of a show, and, based on that, the ad value of commercials within a show.

"Live TV" is still important for advertisers to hand over that dough to the network. There is also Live+SD (Same Day), which counts people that DVR or On Demand the show that same day, Live+3 (C3), which measures the rating over three days, and Live+7 (C7), that measures over seven days.

Don't like commercials? Well that's where a large chunk of the money comes from to make your television show of choice (on non-streaming TV).

On Demand and DVR make counting the audience accurately more difficult. DVRs capture some data, but don't report it out to networks and advertisers. On Demand is the same way since it is usually through your cable provider.

Apps and proprietary sites are a bit different. Streaming through a network app or site can be measured and sold to advertisers the way traditional linear television can. You usually need a cable provider login to access most of that content, too.

Nielsen now also counts social interactions around Facebook and Twitter in its ratings measurements, but advertisers have to buy into that data, and that is on a case by case basis. If the show provides a hashtag on-screen, for example, it means someone is measuring something across the social sphere. Also tweeting and interacting with the show and the network helps to show engagement.

All of these things are important because the decision to renew or cancel ultimately falls on the network that will air the show. Ratings themselves don't always matter, like the case with the example of CW's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Deals with Netflix and major awards don't hurt, either.