Deck 7: Broadcast Measurements, and Advertising Research

Question 1

In radio ratings, 15 percent share in the morning may actually represent a greater number of listeners than a 20 percent share at night. How can that be?

Answer 1

Share measures the percentage of possible listeners, not the percentage of people listening at a given time. In other words, a small number of people - not representing a large percentage of the entire possible audience - may be listening in the morning compared with a smaller total audience in the evening.

Question 2

What are the possible issues with the Nielsen process for measuring ratings?
How would you improve the process?

Answer 2

The Nielsen process changes periodically as the company strives to represent the potential viewing audience. It may not fully represent all the different groups in a given population and there is a possibility that people who are listed as viewing a TV show may not be watching even though they are in the room. Further it is difficult to measure how many people are not listening on conventional television sources, but on smart phones or laptops.

Question 3

How do you think you would do if asked to fill out a ratings diary?
Would you fill it out as you watched TV or wait for the weekend and try to remember?
(be truthful).

Answer 3

Students should think about whether they would be disciplined enough to keep track of all shows watched every day for a month, not to mention a year. They could be assigned to keep a diary including streaming shows and those watched on their mobile devices.

Question 4

What types of measurements might be useful for both PR and advertising?
What would be the differences in approach, audiences and objects of the measurements?

Question 5

If advertising is headed to an "ad-less" future, what impact might that have on PR?
In otherwords, would fewer ads make PR more or less valuable to clients?
Why?
How?

Question 6

Think about what the differences are between "earned media" and "owned media" and what audiences might be more influenced by one or the other.