Cable TV & Broadcast (through the air) TV

[Joseph DeMartino]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, arial">quote:</font><HR>So, the SciFi Channel is in 70 million households.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Nope, read my post again. They say 70 million "subscribers" and they don't define subscribers. There are roughly 260 million people in this country. If the average number of people per household is 4, that means there are only about 65 million households in the country.

I somehow doubt that Sci-Fi is reaching 5 million more households than we have. (Unless there are a lot of Canandians pulling it in off grey-market satellite dishes.

)

I'm guessing that by subscribers they mean,
"people in households that receive the Sci-Fi Channel", which would mean that they're in 18 million households, or about 27% of the theoretical market. (But since not all U.S. households even have access to cable, their actual market penetration would be higher.) That's not bad for a network that had about 10 million subscribers, or 4 million households less than ten years ago. But you can bet that ABC, NBC and CBS are not losing any sleep over it.

Regards,

Joe

------------------
Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

 

[StarStuff]

Thanks Joe for clearing up the population numbers!

What does the 1.0 rating mean in numbers for the Farscape series (week of 7/9 - 7/15)? And, I see John Edwards (with a program that is on all the time) has a .8 number for the same week.

What numbers does a movie (RANGERS) need to be considered for a possible series??

Just curious . . .





------------------
God be between you and harm in all the empty places you must walk.

[This message has been edited by StarStuff (edited August 03, 2001).]

 

[**DONOTDELETE**]

I believe the numbers represent a precentage of the population. I read on the SciFi wire news site that the 1.6 rating that the Chronicle got represented 1.12 million viewers. Here is the link to that story.
http://www.scifi.com/scifiwire/art-sfc.html?2001-07/23/11.15.sfc

------------------
"I didn't think so, but if I was wrong, I was wrong. I'd rather do something, and make a mistake than be frightened and be doing nothing. That's the problem back home. Folks have been conned to thinking they can't change the world, have to accept what is. I'll tell you something my friends. The world is changing every day, the only question is who's doing it."
-- Rev. Dexter in Babylon 5:"And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place"

 

[StarStuff]

Thanks for the explanation. It's interesting to try to understand how 'they' determine what shows will be on. But I still find it hard to believe that a show like John Edwards can make Sci Fi top 10 list.

I guess the fact that B5 has been shown many times is the reason it's not on the list. Are most of the others on the list new shows or shows with new episodes?

------------------
God be between you and harm in all the empty places you must walk.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Again, you have to remember that when Sci-Fi reports a 1.6, this number is adjusted to reflect the fact that millions of Americans can't get the Sci-Fi Channel because their cable company doesn't carry it. That allows for "apples to apples" comparisons with other networks that are carried more widely. The number of viewers, on the other hand, may have been based on the "raw" ratings number, so I'm not sure the 1.6 directly translates to the 1.12 million viewers claimed.

As for what number the Sci-Fi Channel has in mind for the Rangers movie, that's anybody's guess. And it may not be simply the ratings that they're interested in. Ratings for a one-shot movie can't be that certain an indicator of how well a series will do week-by-week, and the networks know this. Test audience reaction and overall fan reaction and critical reaction to the film may play as big a role as ratings in their final decision. The other factor will be how the ratings trend during the movie's airing.

Ratings are usually compiled in quarter-hour increments. Normally the ratings go up each quarter hour as a certain number of channel surfers run across the movie and stay to watch, and as people who always planned to watch but didn't get to the TV until act two or whatever tune in. If the ratings go up by a greater than expected amount for each quarter hour, this is a good sign. If they go down however, this means that people are bored, or hate what they're watching, and are tuning to the competition. This would be a Bad Thing for Rangers.

It may be this trend-line, more than the actual rating, that Sci-Fi wants to see.

Regards,

Joe



------------------
Joseph DeMartino
Sigh Corps
Pat Tallman Division
joseph-demartino@att.net

 

[A_M_Swallow]

The ratings figure will also determine how much Sci-Fi can charge for advertising during the show. The breakdown of the type viewers should determine what gets advertised. For instance single women - makeup, children - toys, married men - do it your self and single men - toys like dvd players.

------------------
Andrew Swallow