Read on Twitter
US TV ratings explained as I see the same incorrect debates around AEW and NXT ratings.
[thread]
The Nielsen ratings are calculated based on a sample of 40,000 homes and about 100,000 people that's demographically representative of the population as a whole.
1/
[thread]
The Nielsen ratings are calculated based on a sample of 40,000 homes and about 100,000 people that's demographically representative of the population as a whole.
1/
It's a small fraction of the 120 million or so homes with TV, but also a lot more than, say, a typical political poll that surveys just a couple thousand people.
2/
2/
Ratings are percentages, measuring the portion of a given group — be it households, adults 18-49 or women 25-54 — watching a given show. Adults 18-49 is the primary demo by which ad rates are set for entertainment programming, so it's the most commonly reported.
3/
3/
Share: The percentage of a given group who are watching TV at that time and are tuned into a given program.
4/
4/
Total viewers: Pretty self-explanatory — the average number of people watching a program in any given minute while it airs.
5/
5/
Live-plus-same-day: The ratings that get reported each day, first as "fast nationals" in the morning and then as final numbers in the afternoon. They include both live viewing from the previous night and delayed viewing until 3 a.m. Fast nationals are pretty accurate.
6/
6/
Live-plus-3: Same-day ratings with three additional days of DVR and on-demand viewing added in. The majority of delayed viewing that Nielsen measures happens in this timeframe, with most shows growing their audiences by a good amount.
7/
7/
Live-plus-7: The same as live-plus-3, extended to a full week. In the 2018-19 season, two dozen series at least doubled their 18-49 ratings after seven days.
8/
8/
C3 and C7 ratings: Arguably the most important ratings numbers that the public doesn't usually see. These ratings track the number of viewers who actually watch commercials — which is why Nielsen ratings exist in the first place — over three or seven days.
9/
9/
They play a big role in setting rates for advertisers buying commercial time. The occasional glimpses at C3 and C7 ratings in recent years have suggested they're higher than same-day numbers but a good distance short of live-plus-3 and live-plus-7 numbers.
10/
10/
Social ratings: Nielsen measures social engagement around TV shows, counting the number of posts about a given episode and the reach of the conversation. Higher is better, but heavy social conversation and high on-air ratings don't necessarily go hand in hand
11/11
11/11
