1. Chapter 8 Audience Measurement & Sales
“It’s essential for media outlets to understand their audiences, because after all, the media are in the business of selling audiences to their advertisers.”
- Medoff & Kaye p. 196
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2. History of Audience Measurement
1920s-Two methods
Telephone recall
Telephone coincidental
1930s-Audiometer: a metering device attached to radios
1940s-Diary: supplemented telephone coincidental data
2000s-Diary: used in most broadcast areas (markets)
1-4 “Ratings periods” per year

3. Criticism of Audience Measurement
“Only” 5000 U. S. households surveyed to determine national audience size & traits.
Only home reception surveyed.
Is self-reporting, especially in diaries, truthful or accurate?
Often completed after the fact.
Often “votes” for favorites rather than actual behavior.
Recall often in error.
Subject may distort diary to hide certain behaviors.
Some demographics require statistical manipulation.

4. Criticism of Internet Audience Measurement
No single standard; multiple data collection methods yield contradictory reports.
Click-through counts as an ad view by some people, not by others. No guarantee of attention, perception, comprehension or recall.
Some ratings firms count duplicate website visits; others don’t.

5. Types of TV Audience Measurement
Rating: The number of households tuned to a particular program/the total number of households owning a TV set.
Share: The number of households tuned to a particular program/the total number of households using a TV set at the time of the program’s broadcast.
Extrapolate to estimate number of total viewers.

6. Types of Radio Audience Measurement
Rating: The number of persons tuned to a particular program/the total number of persons owning a radio.
Share: The number of persons tuned to a particular program/the total number of persons listening to radio at the time of the program’s broadcast.
Minimum unit of audience attention: 15:00.

7. Types of TV Audience Measurement
Wilmington DMA Households = 100,000
Households Using TV (HUT) = 50,000
Viewership:
WECT 6:00 News 25,000 homes
WECT rating? WECT share?
WWAY 6:00 News 20,000 homes
WWAY rating? WWAY share?
Click to show ratings and shares. 25 50 20 40

8. Other Audience Measurement Terms/ Presentation of Measurement Data
Ratings & Shares & the Average Quarter Hour (AQH).
Cume: The number of different persons listening to a station for at least 5:00 during a quarter hour.

9. Other Audience Measurement Terms/ Presentation of Measurement Data
Cume: The number of different persons listening to a station for at least 5:00 during a quarter hour.
WLOZ student radio station.
8:00-8:15 = 10 listeners
8:15-8:30 = 2 leave, 4 join, 12 total
8:30-8:45 = 6 leave, 2 join, 8 total
Cume = =16 different listeners.
Because cable and radio ratings are generally small, cume is an important measurement

10. Other Audience Measurement Terms/ Presentation of Measurement Data
The Nielsen Television Index reports metered audience data.
The Nielsen Station Index reports metered audience data nightly.
TV networks rely on the Station Index for data on how particular programs rated.
Cable: Nielsen Home Video Index.

11. Learning More About Broadcast Audiences
Radio stations measure song preferences
Call-out research & Group research
Play “hooks” for listeners and chart feedback
More dependence on national trends, less on local research
Ratings used to determine: DJ hirings, firings, format adjustments, wholesale changes

12. Learning More About Broadcast Audiences
TV networks test programs
Subjects view pilots or season finales for current shows in theaters.
Meters record their attitude toward the program shown.

13. Learning More About Broadcast Audiences
Program-makers can then re-shoot shows to make them more likeable
TVQ: A measurement of audience attitude toward tv actors

14. Types of Internet Audience Measurement
Cookies record data from your computer each time you visit a website.
Operators also offer discounts or prizes for information about you.

15. Audience Measurement Terms: Advertiser Costs
Cost Per Thousand (CPM): How much an advertiser spends to reach 1000 potential consumers?
Audience of 200,000 over a month of ads
Cost of advertising program $10,000
$10,000/200,000 = $.05 (5 cents per exposure)
Gross ratings points: The number of spots x the average rating.

16. Audience Measurement Terms: Advertiser Costs
Cost Per Point (CPP): The cost of reaching an audience equal to one ratings point in a given market.

17. Audience Measurement Terms: Dayparts
A radio station’s spot rates vary based on time of day (daypart) & average # of listeners during that daypart.
A TV station’s rates vary based on daypart & the # of viewers for a particular program

18. Types of Spot “Buys” Fixed: Spots must air @ specific times.
Run-of-Schedule: Spots aired whenever a station sees fit.
Frequency Discounts: The more time bought, the lower the cost per time a spot airs.
Barter: Advertiser pays a station not in dollars but in goods or services.
Cooperative Advertising: Manufacturer of a good sold by a local or national retailer pays part of a retailer’s time costs.
Local Discount: Benefits local companies

19. Internet Advertising: Problems of Measurement
Fifteen hits could mean several things.
Technology fails to account for repeat visits.
Push programs visit sites but no human sees sites hit.
Site visitors who click-through a banner ad can be counted, as opposed to all site visitors.
Site operators can charge a click-through rate.
But a click-through rate higher than 2% is rare.

20. Internet Advertising: Types of Buys
Time spent online: The more time a visitor spends on a site screen, the more likely she’ll click through.
Size: Rates may be based on ad size, measured in pixels.
Cost per transaction: Rates may be based on a percentage of sales.
Auction: A third party sells unused site space.
Exchange: Site operators advertise on each other’s site.
Co-op: In exchange for a ”piece” of click-through sales, a site operator promotes a good or service.

21. New Ways to Track Audiences
Radio-Portable People Meter: A device designed to track both in- & out-of-home reception to radio.
Radio-TV-Global Position Satellite (GPS) technology: GPS tech used to track out-of-home reception of stationary messages, such as billboards.
TV- Sets can be equipped with meters that record transmissions of signals that transcend human senses.