Are the US tv viewing figures wrong?

[Spedley]

I often look through wikipedia to see the episode guides of various tv series.  There is a column on the right which shows the number of US viewers but they just seem odd to me.  Surely if you haven’t watched the rest of the series you won’t have a clue what is happening if you just watch one episode?  Why can they jump from 500k to 800k just because it is a good episode?  It doesn’t make sense to me.

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[Dave Rice]

People do dip in and out of series or start half way through.

[The Duke]

You’ll find the first episode, the pilot, is usually crappy on most shows, so people like to skip that one apparently. I can’t I have to be in from Ep1, even though it’s rare Ep1 of anything is usually good. I usually give to the end of ep3 before ill give up on a show, as ep3 is usually where a show hits its stride, and if it hasn’t got be by then I’m out.

The only show ever that I’ve bailed on before the end of Ep1 is the new Antony Hopkins one on sky, I don’t know why, it’s should be right up my street, but I hated the 30 mins, I turned it off. Very very unlike me.

Over exams I watched black sails on Amazon and have now caught up with real time. How old fashioned it is to wait 7 days for the next ep!

Ive never read treasure island, but black sail is based on it, and I’ve just loved it. Ripped through 4 years of eps in about 10 sleepless nights.

Regarding viewing fingers, there are only estimates anyhow. But I’d imagine say ep 1 is good and 10 people see it live , word gets around, 20 then watch it on catch up, the 30 watch it live next week.

I think numbers are counted on views in the first couple of runs. I don’t think Nelson who count this stuff, count online views yet. But it’s easy to imagine how views can massively fluxe if the previous weeks ep was good.

I know if you dvr an episone of somthing in America you have to watch it in a certain time for it to count towards the offical figures. Ad all the figures are there for is add sales revenue, and not for the benefit of the show itself.

Also the likes of Amazon and Netflix won’t even tell the owners of the shows the viewing figures, and they know to the man how many views what gets

There is a good podcast called cordkillers I watched it more when it was under its old name and on the twit network, but they had the producers of house of cards on (Dawn Bowers or similar name) , and other big Internet productions, and they have gone really deep into what views actually mean, and they follow these trends etc, as well as discuss shows and how to legally get content online.

It’s axing the stuff you pick up when you have it playing in the background.

The simple answer is they are worthless to you of your not in the add sales business, and reflect little.

[Dave Rice]

You turned off Westworld?

Get on catch up right now, it’s a fantastic series.

[The Duke]

I may give it another go. As I said u should of lived it, the concept is up my street, and the rest of the world seem to like it. So I may give it a go, next time I can’t sleep.

[dwynnehugh]

Before anyone queries the logic of the Yanks, they did vote for Trump and he became well ……!!

The more you meet people the more you understand why Noah took animals instead of humans

[The Duke]

Sadly they didn’t have much choice. But have no sympathy as when you have a pic of 320m people and they are are the best two the select, a criminal and a pathological lair, so what do you expect.

Then again we can’t  laugh, we had Blair, charm us into office  who turned out to be one of the worst men ever.  then we let the little brother of the guy that should of win his seat win, then choose a sandal wearing hippy, that is having an identity crisis atm to lead labour.

And out current dear leader, is the grey women of politics, that is letting power go to her head

I’m no conservative, but sadly it’s them or nothing, and they are not great atm. So we are just as bad as America, actually probably worse. At least they gambled on the chance of change. We just have one large party of Etonians running the house, and when they wrestle back power from the EU, their own be no stopping them.

[Robin Long]

West World = Must Watch, that said you need to have seen the movie to stand a chance of actually understanding the first maybe 3 episodes even SWMBO watched it!

Most US viewing figures are very accurate they use the Nielsen system, which is a kind of DVR that phones home daily.  It records two sets of data, 1 what was watched and when and 2 views are asked to rate on a scale of 1 to 10 1= shit 10 = shit hot.  But this system is flawed as it categorizes programs  between cable and syndication(sky and Freeview), it also only records viewing figures on the day of release (watched live or same day on the DVR) so if you watch all your TV at the weekend your vote ain’t counted, this can explain some of the figures fluctuation.

This is the method for tracking trends is deemed the fairest, crucially it allows advertisers to establish whether or not the ad is watched, Live TV cannot be fast forwarded = cost effective advert placement = big money.

Nielsen is very effective, but given the money it commands it has to be, full access to their data can break down every aspect of a viewer from race to sexual orientation through to how much of the program was watched and which bits got skipped.

As ever though it’s only a snapshot, Game of Thrones nearly got canned by HBO until European viewing figures got back to the Network Exec’s.  Amazon and Netflix have their work cut out as what works in one place does not work elsewhere.

Cheers Knight,

RIP Spike09 Your Missed
If I'm not here, I'm there.

Finally joined Twitter! longr79

[The Duke]

What’s the film we called? Is it the same name? And you would recommend it before the series?

[Tippon]

The Duke wrote:

What’s the film we called? Is it the same name? And you would recommend it before the series?

I still haven’t watched the film, and I really enjoyed the series  :good:

[The Duke]

I think I’ll give ep 1 ago again now. Can’t sleep, backs playing up.

 

Edit – sadly Now TV only have the last 4 episode, so I’ll have to wait till the season is compleat and for them to release the box set. I could pay for the season on Amazon, but that’s not going to happen, or a couple borrow it on Show Box, but, for a show I never liked the first time, I can’t be bothered downloading it.

I’ll wait.

[Ed P]

The original film version is THIS one. It was based on a book by Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park fame) which appears to be out of print.

[Dave Rice]

The film is very different to the HBO series. The premise is the same but HBO expand massively it and twist it like a twisty turney thing.

Two words Steve – Kodi Exodus.

[Boris]

Ed P wrote:

The original film version is THIS one. It was based on a book by Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park fame) which appears to be out of print.

I don’t believe the book was ever published, I remember seeing an interview with Crichton saying that it was a screenplay he had written and he had felt the story was better as a visual concept, and would not really work as a book

Never trust an atom - they make up everything !

[The Duke]

I was naughty and after I posted I downloaded the ten Eps to my phone,  Via Showbox We’re at the ozzy this afternoon, so I’ll watch one then.

I ended up stating treasure Island last night instead of watching one.

[Robin Long]

Book appears to have been published(being nosey and seeing if it could track down a copy) but at £280 for a copy it’s out of my reach!

Cheers Knight,

RIP Spike09 Your Missed
If I'm not here, I'm there.

Finally joined Twitter! longr79

[Richard]

The query started off about the viewing figures. To be honest why would anyone who did not work in the advertising industry worry if the figures were right or wrong? If you like something watch it, otherwise walk on by and do something else that you enjoy. I agree that the see-saw figures do appear to throw doubt on the results presented, but there may be an explanation about which outsiders do not know, viewing on alternative devices, comes to mind along with competing options.

I am not passing any judgement on any of the shows as I have never seen any of them.

[Ed P]

According to Michael Crichton’s  wiki it was a film script – does not stop there being a book of the film however.

[Robin Long]

Well, the current system, for the most part, works on Pre-Selected viewers returning statistics for what they have watched, so the random person that stumbles across the program that figure won’t be recorded.

Pre-selected viewers can also give incorrect data, though, daytime figures can be disturbed by school/state holidays and sports matches.  Evening figures can be affected by events such as valentines day which might explain some of the see-saw’ing.  Other factors that can quickly affect figures are political stances Trump supporters, for example, saw a brief dip in popularity, mirrored in their programs a dip not mirrored outside of the US.  Acknowledged viewing figures in the US can only come from one source, this validates viewing figures in that they were definitely watched at that time, there generally does not appear to be much interest in on-demand viewing figures.

Outside of advertising, figures can be useful for establishing social trends, Westworld causes a price spike in the Book of the original film, GoT got people reading again and The Grand Tour caused a surge in demand for Loch Ness Accommodation after the show had aired.  So knowing air dates and popularity is advantageous.

Cheers Knight,

RIP Spike09 Your Missed
If I'm not here, I'm there.

Finally joined Twitter! longr79

[Spedley]

I’m not particularly interested in the figures, I just wondered why people watched an episode out of the blue.

Robin probably explains it – it’s not that extra people are watching but that the viewers are going out of their way to watch the episode on the day of release, perhaps because of a good trailer or perhaps even a cancelled show or sport on another channel.

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