Eat it, Nielson!

Television, Movies Games and Books BSG-2003
#1

From Galactica Sitrep

If you want a peek at what the real ratings are for a show with a massively tech-savvy fandom like BATTLESTAR’s, take a read:

‘BATTLESTAR GALACTICA’ SCORES BEST PERFORMANCE SINCE SEASON 2 PREMIERE WITH NEW LIVE + 7 DATA

SCIFI.COM HAS BEST MONTH EVER WITH RECORD BATTLESTAR GALACTICA TRAFFIC AND TRIPLE-DIGIT GROWTH

New York, NY February 4, 2009 Battlestar Galactica added to its stellar premiere numbers with the release of new Live +7 data. Overall, the January 16 episode, the first of the series’ highly-anticipated final installment, averaged a 2.0 HH rating, 1.8 million Adults 18-49 (up +38% over the Live +Same Day ratings), 1.9 million Adults 25-54 (+35%), and 2.8 million total viewers (+32%). This was the best performance for Battlestar Galactica in total viewers since the season 2 premiere in July 2005.

Fans also visited SCIFI.COM in droves during the month of January to get their Battlestar fix online. With its robust slate of original content offerings, including the 10-part webisode series, “The Face of the Enemy,” the Battlestar section of SCIFI.COM was #1 section of the site in January in page views (8.9 million, best month since April '08) and video streams (4.7 million, best month since October '06). Since debuting in December, “The Face of the Enemy” has served up 2.5 million streams.

Combine that info with the fact that BSG is constantly tracking as one of the most torrented shows in the stream, and come to your own conclusions about just how many folks are really watching our show. Nielsens be damned.

#2

Ha! I knew it :slight_smile:

So watching on Hulu counts now. ?

#3

About …I think…six years ago we got a knock on the door from The Nielson Company and we were invited to be a Nielson Family. My wife is interesting in marketing and stuff, so she thot it would be neat so we said yes. So we were a Nielson family for about 2 (or 3) years. It was kinda interesting, but got to be a pain in the sorryBarb after a while. It was all automated, but still, kinda annoying to have a press the Neilsen box button every time we each of us watch TV. And after 70 minutes of TV watching, you and to press the button again or it would flash like a Start Trek Red Alert (quietly though.)

#4

You worked for the bad guys then?

#5

I was given an opportunity to participate for something like 12 days back in November, I think it was, but BSG wasn’t even on at the time, and writing it all down was annoying.

I don’t know why they don’t just track DVRs.

#6

I did. And my wife is to blame for helping to give a lot of reality TV shows good a decent Nielson rating. She has since then cured herself, and ceased watching most of the crappy reality shows.

#7

They track everything. In other words, if you have a VCR or DVR they track how much time you’ve spent recording things. Essentially they want to track ever moment that you have you TV screen on and watching something.

One time I was watching video played directly from our camcorder on our TV screen, and and doing that caused an anomally in the Nielsen’s tracking. So they immediately called and scheduled a technician to come out. He set up the system to from then on also track anything played on the TV via the camcorder.
Big Brother was watching.

#8

One of my army buddies works for motorola. Their DVR boxes are used by most cable companies. He is working on a project to make it to where you CAN’t FFWD during a recorded program ( past comercials!) till they have been viewed.

In other words, when you dvr a program… you have to watch it in real time the first time ( or let it play in the middle of the night and come back the next day for viewing) and hence watch the commercials!

He says there is also a a tracker being installed to track DVR’d programming… and number of times viewed. This will allow for a much more sc-fi friendsly rateign for many of our favorite shows.

Their hopes… to replace Neilson. Become the NEw standard for rateings thus advertisers.

My feelings are two-fold. On one side I don’t want to have to watch commercials! On the other side… SCi-fi shows that I love are DVR’d and rewatched… this could mean a lot more shows get the respect that they deserve.

#9

If you cancel people’s ability to circumvent commercials people will just find another way to enjoy the product they want, and I think it would set a dangerous precedent. Not to mention that I’d rather just watch BSG when it came on than spend $20-25 a month to watch the commercials anyway. That’s if I didn’t just cut advertisers out of the equation entirely and buy it on DVD.

That being said, as a tool for tracking use, Motorola (the mfr. of my DVR as well) does have a nice inside track.

We do live in a scary world where almost everything you do is supervised to make sure advertisers can belch their spew at you as much and idrectly as humanly possible.

#10

personaly, I think they should adopt the British model for television shows. If you want me to watch commercials before the show, fine. Stop interrupting the show.

#11

Doesn’t Dr. Who break for commercials in the UK. I ask that because they have the chapters top at “break points” and have the Who animation in and out of comercial breaks…are those only made for US distribution?

I should know this… l lived there, but I mostly didn’t watch BBC. I mostly was drinking and watching videos or American cable via satalite.

#12

Yeah, that’s for US distribution.

#13

You, Thot, are the first Nielson family member I’ve ever “met.” I was starting to become convinced they were just a myth.

#14

Yup. We exist. Each Nielsen family statistically represents about 30,000 people.
And I want to go on record right now apologizing to you, and everyone else, for shows like The Bachelor and other reality TV programs.

#15

Well, we’ll figure out your “forgiveness” at the Finale Meetup.