Fox made a decision to downplay the daily rating. If the press doesn’t take the same approach and “hold off” on ranking yesterday’s viewing FOX will be forced back into the editorial deadlines established. Their POV makes a lot of sense for dramatic series when the pressure is on delivering bigger audiences. Why play on a field tilted toward sports and news (which are not time shifted as much)? The only drawback is the pressure to know and make quick decisions which exists at all major media companies.
For Outdoor Channel the question never was about daily ratings. I don’t see us in a hurry to get the ratings faster or a desire to increase the staff to focus on the cadence needed to analyze daily performance over weekly. What I do see is the point FOX is making and that is to get our audiences into the C3 and future C7 system and to include the TVE and digital viewing in that number. As we have the pie of OC viewing sliced into TVE, VOD, and online digital Nielsen threatens to keep the few non-dailies networks out of that game. These other platforms will be more of a shift in how current viewing is consumed and less additive.
The article includes a couple of insightful graphics showing the time shifting differs by day of week and by network.
More to come….
http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-08-12/as-tv-ratings-shift-to-three-day-measurement-heres-who-wins-big
