Commentary

Forget About Ratings -- We're Profitable

by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 8, 2010

So when do you stop thinking that high Nielsen ratings ultimately mean success? 2015? 2020? Maybe it's today.

CNN seems like a perfect example of this. We all know the story of how Fox News rocketed past CNN in viewership. Even MSNBC was ahead of CNN on occasion.

But we're probably not focusing on the right numbers. According to Jonathan Klein, president of CNN U.S., the network has doubled its profitability over the past four years.

Now, to be fair, I'm sure the financials at Fox News have had their own bit of eye-popping upward level gains. Still, the CNN numbers are amazing, considering the increased competition for news programming around the world.

More ratings de-valuation: Dawn Ostroff, president of entertainment for CW, says not to expect the live ratings for shows like "Gossip Girl" or "90210" to ever improve from where they are -- especially as viewers (the younger ones that CW caters to) find alternative ways of getting programming.

Is Ostroff worried? Not really. She says CW is pleased with where things are. TV entertainment executives are usually terribly upbeat about things. But modern times call for new lines of attack. Look at profitability; look at nontraditional video metrics, right now.

NBC's Jeff Zucker has talked to the issue of profitability before. Perhaps we put too much emphasis on ratings, which may ultimately deliver less value than realized.

Future measurements of success may be whether Sprint sells more mobile phone two-year contracts to viewers who regularly watch "Heroes" or "Flash Forward: The Future Years" -- or whether viewers become significantly "aroused" while watching, as measured by new skin-testing media lab technology.

Who know? Maybe in the future, all that will matter is whether a viewer produced one tear of emotion more than average or laughed a bit more than he should have.

The concept of using ratings for promotion may also be overrated. How important is it, really, to tell consumers certain TV shows are popular? Marketing executives will tell you there's nothing better than for viewers to discover new TV shows themselves.

5 comments about "Forget About Ratings -- We're Profitable".

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Marla Rothfarb from Rubin Postaer and Associates, March 8, 2010 at 1:39 p.m.
Direct Response and Infomercials know that ratings do not measure success. Selling product does.
Reply

Todd Koerner from e-merge Media, March 8, 2010 at 1:44 p.m.

If you were a major studio, would you rather have Avatar's ticket sales or The Hurt Locker's? Oscars are nice, but they don't pay the bills... or shareholders, for that matter.

Douglas Ferguson from College of Charleston, March 8, 2010 at 1:46 p.m.

The real disconnect is between real value and perceived value. The perceived value of CNN is still high, although the real value is low. I can imagine lots of analogies, where people continue to value something for which the intrinsic value has decline. And maybe the people who control media buying and selling simply cannot wrap their heads around the clear fact that CNN's audience is in dead-last place among its competitors, if only because they believe "that's not the way it used to be."

Mike Einstein from the Brothers Einstein, March 8, 2010 at 2:02 p.m.

Given the choice between audience and revenue, I'll take the money.

Aaron B. from AnimationInsider.net, March 9, 2010 at 9:21 a.m.

Using ratings data for promotion may feel pointless to the viewer, but to programming directors at a network, I'm sure it has a lot to do with timing... leveraging the information you have to corral viewer eyeballs in the most efficient manner. Perhaps even more so to retain viewers, after a program finds a burst of unexpected growth or popularity. Discovering cool television that fits one's interest is great... but the timing won't be on the same schedule as the network's preferences. Sweeps periods, sporting events, and internal promotions irregularly populate the calendar... the chance a swath of viewers in the right demographic "discovering" just the right program at just the right time is slim.