Nielsen Ratings to start tracking college students.
 

Can I get an Amen.

I have to wonder why it has taken so many years for Nielsen to come to the conclusion that this huge segment of the viewing population should be counted? Were they trying to control the ratings?


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Leno beating Letterman in the late night race is pretty meaningless if they weren't counting college students all these years.

I also think Office/Earl become even stronger now.

I can think of at least one programming category getting ignored there.

Agree. I think this will hurt the 1 hour Dramas and help the 30 minute sitcoms.



I do have a question about this.

Right now if you have a family of 4 with 2 kids in college, mom and dad count 4 votes and their kids count 0 votes. After this goes into affect will mom and dad still count 4 votes with their kids getting 2 additional votes, or will mom and dad lose 2 votes? I ask this because the test study they did earlier this year just showed increases in ratings and did not mention any decreases.

I think this will have much less impact than you guys think - but that's just my gut feeling, no facts or anything to back it up. I'm interested to hear what JiMG has to say when he sees this thread.

Sure, stupid things will have slight ratings bumps, but, really, when weighed against the rest of the population, it's not that large of a segment. Not only that, but I doubt they're the most sought after consumers.

SI

I think that college students are very highly coveted. From what little I know teens and college students form initial buying patterns that are difficult to change later in life.

I don't know if this will be a big change in ratings, but I'm sure the change is being made because advertisers want the info on college students.

I have heard that there could be as much as a 50% increase in ratings for Adult Swim!


To me, that would be a big change.

Naturally, nobody knows for sure until the real numbers are in & can be analyzed (and re-analyzed , and probably over analyzed), but this NYT article from back in February sums up the expectations about as well as anything I guess.

Some key points:
-- Only students whose families already participate in Nielsen's television surveys will have their viewing habits measured, meaning that the college students will be seen as part of their families rather than as new, independent households.
-- According to Nielson, the inclusion of college students could increase the viewing levels in the 18- to 24-year-old age group by 3 to 12 percent, which could result in ratings increases of 0.2 to 1.0 points for programs.
-- Certainly there are some obvious networks that are expected to see some help from the change. Fox more than any other among the broadcast networks, along with maybe the new CW (although that seems less likely to get help now given the weak performance in its first few weeks). On the cable side, MTV is figured to see a boost, likewise Comedy Central, as is the ESPN family of networks, with Sportscenter being among the most watched programs for M18-24 for years now & remains strong in the demo.
-- Another potential winner that's not even on most people's radar might be in the campus network categories. Networks like mtvU, National Lampoon Network, Zilo, etc. which are available typically only on college campuses, most often in cases where they paid the school to be added to their local channel and/or system. If you're still drawing a blank on these networks, take a look at the TV's playing in the background in places like the cafeteria or the student center. Odds are pretty good that at least one of these networks is playing on at least one of the sets.

Again, why isn't anyone mentioning the word decrease?

If Mom and Dad are losing their childrens votes, there should be a corresponding decrease to some network shows.

The parents didn't have their children's votes per se. AFAIK, the children simply didn't register as watching, since they weren't in the household to do so (unless it was over a holiday break, or the summer, or they lived at home, etc).