A question I never understood! Explain can you??

[1MoInput]

I just like to know, how does radio stations and tv programs know how much viewers or listeners are tuning in and how do these viewers contribute to their income or finances. I know they get income or money from ads and promotions partners, but how does the viewers contribute to the money that drive the network? I mean we watch tv, the only people I see benefit right away is the electric company because we use electricity and pay for it at the end of the month, and the other people benefit are those running ads gettng us to buy their stuff, but how does the company that running the signal (programs) like cnn, nbc, cbs, make their money from the viewers? At some point I was thinking like there is somekind of secret technology in our radios, tv, and stuff that communicate with something else we dont' know that's how they know how much viewers are watching and then charge the electric companies for money Silly me but I never understood this.

[rraehal]

I have wondered too.

My take is that there are comapnies who specialize in estimating the info.

Excample 1: A certain numer of magazines is bought from a publisher = X amout in circulation. Retails stores buy X amount from a middle man (wholesaler) and the middle man needs to order more. His sales info can help comapnies determine how many are circulating and where by looking at where the middle man is selling by quantity and area.

As far as TV and Radio, it would be a little more difficult but the concept is similar. A particular channel has a certain numer of markets it braodcasts in. In those markets cable and satellite comapnies have a certain number of subscribers. With digital cable and other bi-directional communications, the companies could determine who is watching which channel, but I don't think they do it. (Invasion of Privacy concerns???) I think it can be estimated statistically as to how many viewers in a market are watching a channel and when.

[j.m@talk]

Theres three ways:

1. Digital Television Can store your viewing patterns & report back to base (Obviously not all digital tv)

2. Market Surveys ...... (Yawn)

3. They just plain guess

[1MoInput]

I can understand how they can estimate and survey how many people watched this and that, but how exactly viewers contribute to their income though? I mean we only turn on the tv and use electricity, it's not like we using a service from the signal and pay for the signal in someway.

[SJG437]

Viewers contribute to their income by watching and buying the products that are advertised. This in turn allows the stations to charge more $ to advertise (because of their success.)

Companies that are advertising monitor their income from the various markets and DMAs so they can see an increase in revenue and judge whether the $ spent on advertising was successful. It a vicious circle I tell ya

[j.m@talk]

Originally posted by 1MoInput
I can understand how they can estimate and survey how many people watched this and that, but how exactly viewers contribute to their income though? I mean we only turn on the tv and use electricity, it's not like we using a service from the signal and pay for the signal in someway.

We gotta pay for tv signals ....... Not that it makes a scap of diff tho

[mireland]

I was asked to participate in a survey several years ago..they gave me a diary to track what I watched and when..I wrote down for every week..that all tv shows sucked and asked where the naughty channels were..

[DozerLYP]

i'm pretty sure they do it the same way sysopt do to know howmany ppl are in here...



and yes i got my PM...

[effenger101]

Market research companys, like Nielsen Ratings gather information about how many people are watching what programs.

This is done by serveys, diaries (as mentioned by Mireland), and direct monitoring. Direct monitoring is where the reaserch company comes out to the persons house and hooks up a phone interface with their TV that sends info to the research company about what program that household is watching.

All this info is put together and released as "The Nielsen Ratings".

TV stations, networks, cable stations, and satalite stations use this info to determine how much they can charge for commercial airtime. A very popular show, like the Super Bowl, can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars for a 30 second commercial spot, and a comercial on the late, late, show will cost very little.

In other words, the more people that watch a program, as determined by the rating services, the more money can be charged for commercial time. Thats how television people make their money.

[1MoInput]

Thanks all so much, alwasy wonder this for a long time but never understand the complete picture. I guess it's all in the rating, survey, and promotions money I guess. Oh, what about those people who never take or participate in surveys, ghee, I bet there's millions of us dont and imagine what that can contribute to the ratings? Well, I guess as long that they have a good rating Nielsen Rating to operate that's all they care about right. Thanks

[zybch]

I'm not sure how a Nielsen Rating box could be hooked up to a radio though.
I just assumed that guesses are made and influenced by how much a particular station will pay for the bragging rights (and increased advertising revenue demands) to say that they are number 1.

[rraehal]

Our radio station has a lot of call in contests that deal with the content of the previous week. Basically yes and no questions in the form of did we do this or not. That helps them know people are listening and at what times. You can alos join their website and the members get prizes. I guess the number of correct answers and web members can give a estimate of some portion of the lkisteners in radio.

[ukulele]

TV and Radio account for nearly 25% of the cost of everything we buy. You want to read something scary about advertising read this.........http://www.therubins.com/geninfo/advertise.htm Drug companies spend up to 42% of the cost of drugs on advertising and administration cost.

[The Lodge]

Networks such as cnn, yes, nbc make money from your local cable company. Your cable company pays the network to broadcast their signal. Prime example, I live in NY and I don’t get msg. Time warner cable and msg couldn’t agree on a contract so now we don’t have it. FYI msg is Madison square garden. You know that place in NY, yet as a NY’er I can’t watch games from teams in my own state.

It’s all about the dolla, dolla. ch-ching.