• by Erik Sass  @eriksass1, August 8, 2006

Syndicated TV, which has been relatively quiet in the debates surrounding both DVR and commercial ratings, is finally weighing in. It's position: syndicated TV shows do significantly better than network prime-time programming in both forms of Nielsen ratings.

That's the conclusion, says Hadassa Gerber, director of research and systems for the Syndicated Network Television Association, after analyzing months of data from both Nielsen and TiVo.

Because of concerns about the relatively small sample size of Nielsen's first DVR measurements, Gerber says the SNTA analysis focused on May data. "That month's sample size, 474 households and 722 single adults, is probably not good enough to do ratings for specific programs, but we thought it was sufficient for an overall look."

One main finding: a much higher percentage of all syndicated programming viewed is watched "live," as broadcast, with no viewer intervention in program play. Citing data from a collaboration by TiVo and Nielsen, Gerber notes that during the six-month period from October 2005 to March 2006, on average about 80 percent of all syndicated programming viewed was watched "live," versus about 50 percent of total network prime viewed.

Further, syndicated content shows higher rates of viewer retention during commercials, according to May figures from Nielsen that address commercial ratings. Commercials running during syndicated content retained about 96 percent of viewers, versus 91 percent in the overall Nielsen panel. And within the subset of syndicated programming viewed with DVRs, syndicated content still showed 92 percent retention, versus just 68 percent for network prime.

Asked why this might be, Gerber speculates that people may be willing to watch ad pods during syndicated programming because they are shorter--with an average length of 2 minutes 11 seconds for SNTA members versus prime-time play. It's also possible that viewers don't bring the same sense of urgency to programming they've already seen.